Safety at Amgen

Amgen's Approach to Safety

Amgen is a dynamic company that continuously innovates and evolves in the service of patients. We never stand still. In the midst of change, our culture of safety is a constant. Protecting staff and providing a safe work environment is vitally important to Amgen. 

Our goal is to have a world class safety record through safety leadership and risk management practices—integrating safety throughout our business processes. We are committed to complying with country and local safety regulations and laws and to making safety a fundamental part of how people perform work at Amgen.

To foster our safety culture, we implement a comprehensive safety program, driving to understand and mitigate the root cause of safety incidents and manage and control variability. We use leading indicators to assess the health of our safety programs and make course corrections as needed. Additionally, we conduct formal executive management review of functional safety performance for Operations, Global Commercial Operations and Research and Development on a quarterly bases with a focus on identifying early signals and taking action to drive continuous improvement.

In 2020, we set a safety goal of 0.27 incidents or less per 100 staff. While we improved to our best-ever performance during the year (with a rate of 0.29), through continued focus on new and improved ways to promote staff safety, we fell short of meeting that goal.

Safety Improvement Campaigns

As of 2018, all of our manufacturing sites are using a behavior-based safety approach, focused on reinforcing desired safety behaviors and diminishing unsafe behavior through the practice of positive reinforcement. In 2019, we leveraged the lessons learned from this effort by implementing a revitalized campaign to focus on safety behaviors across the organization, looking not only at how we work, but also how we get around day to day such as driving and walking in parking structures on our campuses. In 2020, we launched a “Take Care” campaign to prevent distracted walking and driving to raise further awareness in this important aspect of how we work.

Contractor Safety Program

Contractor safety is an ongoing commitment and an area of focused attention for Amgen. We continue to improve contractor safety, updating our safety manual and developing online orientation for contractors. The company uses a standardized evaluation process for contractor pre-qualification globally. We accomplished hundreds of safety observations of contractors throughout the year.

In 2020, we set a contractor safety goal of 0.40 incidents or less per 100 workers. Though we met our goal (with a rate of 0.40), we continue to focus on new and improved ways to promote and engage contractors on safety. 

Safety Culture Starts at the Top

Annually, senior management in our Operations, Research and Development, and Global Commercial Operations functions gather for a safety summit to assess the year's safety performance, share insights, and plan and set expectations for the coming year. This is a hands-on event where leaders roll up their sleeves and take a deep dive into safety topics and approaches to improve safety programs. Each leader comes away with a concrete plan for the year ahead that they actively share with staff members who are expected to assimilate and own the plan.

In 2020, the summit was led by the executive vice presidents of each function and the theme was integrating an “actively caring” culture. The 2020 Summit featured a 3rd party keynote speaker. The keynote address shared examples of how to integrate leadership behaviors into the way we work to build a culture of action, rapport and courage; and posed a serious of insightful questions for managers to ask and challenge themselves aimed at further enabling them to work with Staff to establish an “actively caring” culture. Safety Summit actions were cascaded throughout Amgen to improve leader engagement around increasing relationship communication and positive reinforcement of safe behaviors at all levels in the organization.

Ergonomics in Focus

We have achieved continued success with injury prevention through initiatives focused on ergonomically correct equipment, environments and behaviors with emphasis on early detection and prevention of injuries. This approach has demonstrated a marked decrease in the number of ergonomic incidents across the Network.

The work environment is actively changing and presenting new opportunities for staff members to blend lifestyle preferences with work activities. The “home office” provides additional flexibility for staff. Ergonomic support and programming have been introduced to support this emerging work area.

We continue to provide proactive ergonomic risk assessments of work areas to now also include home office environments, customized ergonomics training, and resources to guide staff in using ergonomic strategies to encourage safe behaviors and work habits. Driving a culture of early reporting of discomfort has enabled us to utilize proactive medical intervention, in depth risk assessment and improved engineering controls to move the target forward on injury prevention.

Fleet Safety

Some of Amgen’s staff spend a considerable amount of their day on the road driving for work. We use a data driven approach to identify the causes of collisions so that appropriate actions can be implemented to reduce collision frequency. This approach, which includes monitoring driving behaviors in real-time and providing vehicles with enhanced collision avoidance features, has resulted in a 40% collision rate reduction over the past 5 years.

The Value of Emergency Preparedness

Amgen dedicates significant resources to emergency preparedness. We believe that our preparedness served us well when in 2017 Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico where our largest manufacturing facility is located. Staff injuries were mitigated by, among other things, implementing reduced staffing at the site during and immediately following the hurricane.

Chemical Safety

We implement a robust business process for cradle-to-grave management of chemicals. Through this system, chemical inventory is closely monitored from the time it is purchased to the time of disposal. Among its many benefits including cost savings and waste reduction, the system improves safety by reducing the amount of inventory that is stored in the labs. A revised labeling system provides clear and user-friendly directions for proper storage of chemicals and safe handling information.    

Promoting Safety at Work and at Home

At Amgen, promoting safety doesn't stop at the fence line. At its worldwide headquarters, Amgen holds a large Safety Fair event every year that promotes safety practices at home and at work. Hands on instruction for proper use of fire extinguishers, ergonomic equipment, and earthquake preparedness are among some of the areas showcased at the fair.

Safety Performance

*For purposes of these metrics, Amgen staff includes full time employees (FTE) and contingent workers that are directly supervised by FTEs. Injury and illness rate and lost day case rate data have undergone limited assurance by Apex Companies, LLC.