Kimberly-Clark's Employee Assistance Program
(EAP) provides counseling services to employees and family members
in 20 countries. In the U.S., the EAP is available at 34 locations
and to the sales force, and approximately 8.5 percent of these
employees used the service in 2011. This compares with an industry
standard of 3.5 percent and is credited to Kimberly-Clark's
strong management support, local EAP committees and continuous
promotion of the program.
The Kimberly-Clark Health Services team
responds to health issues and potential crises such as influenza
treatment and prevention information.
Programs provided by the Health Services team include preventive
health screenings, health risk assessments, stop-smoking programs,
medical advice for business travelers, immunizations, flu-shot
clinics, stress management workshops, and other health improvement
programs.
Kimberly-Clark's LiveWell health promotion
programs are designed to inform and motivate employees to live
healthier lives by eating well, exercising and reducing health risk
factors. In 2011, two new facilities-in the Netherlands and
Bahrain-launched LiveWell programs.
In 2011, our employees took up the LiveWell challenge, engaging
in a variety of activities to improve their health:
- Lose BIG Kimberly-Clark, a 12-week wellness platform, was
launched in 2011 for Kimberly-Clark North American employees and
their partners. More than 300 employees took part in the program
supervised by a certified health and fitness professional.
Those reporting lost a total of 1,328 pounds.
- HIV/AIDS education programs offered by Kimberly-Clark South
Africa (KCSA) have achieved significant success over the past five
years. They encourage employees to know their HIV status, educate
employees and their families about HIV and TB, get HIV-positive
employees on to antiretroviral therapy (ART), and report outcomes
to civil society and government agencies through the South African
Business Coalition on HIV and AIDS. As part of the education
program, KCSA and its service provider have offered counseling
services at the production facilities and arranged for HIV-positive
employees to speak out and assist in educating the workforce. The
company program is integrated as far as possible into the
government's ART program.
- A new HIV/AIDS policy, launched in 2011 in our Central American
region, has received special recognition from the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID) and the Program for an Adequate
Response on HIV. The policy supports education and access to
treatment at the workplace.
