Workplace health, well-being and safety

Our commitment to the health and well-being of Nestlé employees: A collective responsibility and a strategic priority

We firmly believe that work is part of personal and professional fulfilment. At Nestlé, it provides a sense of purpose, fair compensation, and opportunities for development. Furthermore, employee health and well-being are the cornerstones of a thriving and high-performing workforce. When individuals feel physically and mentally well, they bring their best selves to work, leading to increased creativity, engagement, and resilience. Prioritizing health and well-being not only reduce absenteeism, presenteeism and related costs but also fosters a culture of care and support, ultimately enhancing employee satisfaction levels and loyalty. This is why we place the overall health of our employees at the core of our strategy, adopting a holistic, inclusive, and preventive approach.

Our progress toward creating a healthier workforce

Learn more in the Social Disclosures section of our 2025 Non-Financial Statement (pdf, 18Mb).

An integrated vision of health and well-being within the organization

The health of our employees extends beyond the absence of illness; it encompasses the physical, mental, social, and financial dimensions, all of which are interconnected. Every initiative we implement, whether related to workplace flexibility, the prevention of psychosocial risks, training, or recognition, is designed with this holistic and integrated perspective in mind.

We have developed the Nestlé Roadmap for Employee Health and Well-being, aimed at inspiring and empowering our employees to choose a healthier future for themselves, their families, and our company. The Nestlé Roadmap for Employee Health provides the global framework for our approach and helps to ensure that our efforts are coordinated, transparent, and aligned with our Corporate Business Principles and business objectives. It also helps us to measure progress in this area, identify any gap and to advance workplace well-being across our organization. Our Roadmap for Employee Health also ensures we build the necessary flexibility that markets need in embedding our approach. This enables markets to tailor their efforts according to the local context in line with local priorities to deliver the most impact. For instance, markets may offer training on mental health and well-being and have dedicated initiatives or programs to raise awareness about this important topic. This comprehensive roadmap, which sets the expectations and priorities for the function and provides guidance for the markets’ health strategies, has four pillars, with key milestones and deliverables:

• Foundations: health standards, health crisis preparedness plans, direct support for employees, ergonomics.
• Governance and capabilities: creation of a health community, health advisory for employees, stakeholder management, health dashboard.
• Health promotion: education and awareness, and concrete initiatives and programs designed to mitigate identified health risks, around physical, mental, financial, and social health dimensions.
• Communication and networking: health communication strategy, employee listening, networking, recognition.

Each pillar is supported by specific objectives and key indicators. We use this roadmap in accordance with our principles: respecting privacy and personal choices, enabling informed decision-making, supporting a healthy working environment, and ensuring healthy working conditions.

Evidence-based approach and listening to employees

We follow an evidence-based approach, through data collection to better understand our employees' risk areas and viewpoints on health and well-being, through different tools, including our employee engagement survey. The Nestlé Employee Relations Roadmap 2025 guides global and local teams in engaging employees.

The data we collect enables us to engage employees in our strategies and design targeted initiatives in response to their identified needs. Each project is thus anchored in an identified need or risk, with aligned resources and objectives. We recognize the importance of collaborating with our employees, their representatives, and external stakeholders, reinforcing our culture of respect and dialogue through direct and frequent communication.

Support throughout the professional journey

Our ambition is to offer an barrier-free, safe, and supportive work environment throughout every stage of our employees' careers. We have integrated inclusion principles into all of our HR processes, to help us better integrate individuals with disabilities, whether visible or invisible, physical or mental. Our Global Guidance on Disability Inclusion promotes inclusive hiring, retention, and development of employees with physical and/or mental disabilities, taking into account all aspects of the recruitment and professional development process.

We aim at providing the necessary reasonable accommodations to enable everyone to perform their duties under the best possible conditions, including job adaptations in cases of chronic illness or return after extended leave, as well as consultations with occupational health services. Our Employee Assistance Program (EAP), available in 98% of countries we operate in, offers personalized support throughout the professional journey.

Concrete services and tools to support physical and mental health

At Nestlé, we offer our employees a wide range of services dedicated to their mental and physical well-being, including:

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP): This program provides support in various areas such as stress management, conflict resolution, mental health, financial issues, and family problems. Employees and their families living in the same household can access free and confidential counselling.
• Occupational Health Services: They generally include care coordination, return-to-work follow-up, fitness assessments, and prevention of occupational risks, thereby supporting a healthy and safe work environment.
• Training: Our #HealthyLives program offers modules on essential topics such as nutrition, sleep, physical activity, and mental health. These training sessions are essential in equipping our employees with the knowledge to make healthier lifestyle choices and fostering a more open-minded culture surrounding mental and physical health.
• Mental Health First Aiders: We have provided training for our employees in multiple locations to become mental health first aiders, enabling them to appropriately listen and support colleagues in distress.
• My Health Numbers: This program monitors the overall health risks of our employees and helps us develop precise risk mitigation strategies.  It also allows Nestlé employees to undergo complimentary medical check-ups.  Mental health issues, unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity remain the primary health risks.
• Healthy Life Days: Since 2021, we have organized two global campaigns per year, called Healthy Life Days, addressing holistic health themes. These sessions include topics such as mental health, resilience, healthy eating, financial well-being, mindfulness, sleep, ergonomics, and specific issues such as cancer and menopause. These campaigns aim to raise awareness among our employees about health issues and to destigmatize mental health.
• Pleaz: An external tool designed to encourage individuals to take active breaks. The Pleaz platform offers a variety of short, video-based breaks on demand, catering to those seeking either a mindful or energizing moment. Taking breaks at work can significantly enhance our physical and mental well-being, from reducing fatigue and recharging energy to sharpening focus and boosting productivity.
• NutriLearn: Our AI-based nutrition training continued to help empower employees with a common understanding of nutrition and its connection to overall health, energy levels, mood and cognitive function.
• New Global Guidance on Working with Critical Health Conditions: With this guidance, we help support employees and caregivers in the event of a critical health condition diagnosis, including during the treatment process and return-to-work, as we recognize that these situations can take a toll on mental health and well-being.

Finally, our intranet portal dedicated to health allows all our employees to access all our resources, programs, and services, thereby enhancing the accessibility and transparency of our approach. This facilitates open communication regarding the strategies and campaigns implemented concerning physical and mental health.

We fully acknowledge the importance of mental health and will continue our efforts in supporting employees in the future.

Our people are at the heart of our business and success. We believe that by strengthening our focus on workplace physical and mental health and well-being, we can actively create a positive and supportive work environment where all our employees can thrive.

Mental Health at Work

At Nestlé, we believe that caring for mental health is essential to building a sustainable and high performing organization. As part of this commitment, we have developed a new Global Guidance on Mental Health at Work, designed to foster healthier, safer, and more supportive working environments across the company. This guidance reflects a holistic view of health, recognizing the close connection between mental and physical wellbeing and the role of caring leadership, prevention, and timely support. As our CEO has shared, “I fully support a holistic view of health. For me, this means caring for both physical and mental wellbeing as the foundation of sustained performance.” While implementation is to be adapted locally, this initiative represents an important step in strengthening our approach to mental health at work and reducing stigma, in line with our values of respect and care for our people.

Safety as a core principle

Our zero-harm culture puts people at the center of everything we do. We are committed and determined to prevent accidents by continually eliminating risks and by enabling employees, and contractors working on our sites to adopt safe behaviors and work to a risk-anticipation mindset. We strive to ensure that the highest safety standards are applied to all our sites, operations and projects. Our Safety Culture Maturity framework helps markets assess and understand the status and progression of safety culture, as well as a pulse point for how safety is perceived by employees and managers.

We expect life-saving rules to be applied with zero tolerance to prevent fatal and serious injuries, and we empower employees to stop work and speak up if they recognize a situation as unsafe, without fear of consequences.

Recognizing worker safety as a human right

Safety and health at work is one of 10 priority human rights areas that we address across our business.

Our Safety and Health Action plan (pdf, 2Mb) summarizes our approach to safety and health, covering our own offices, factories and distribution centers, as well as workers in our supply chain.