Henkel : Objectifying performance

Exceptional use of the web to give detailed information about company objectives.

The Site

Henkel, the adhesives to soap powders group, has a large Sustainability section on the company information side of its website that includes a sub-section of Data on its manufacturing performance worldwide. A separate Objectives sub-section has information on performance targets at group, country and production site level.

The latter has categories for four continental regions, each of which has its own list of production sites by country and the objectives, result and target year for every individual site. Objectives relate to environmental, health and safety goals (for example, ‘10% reduction in waste volume compared with [previous year]’) in 2004 and 2005. Results are shown as ‘Achieved’ or ‘Not achieved’ against the year 2004, and are blank for 2005 objectives. Most of the sites (128 are featured in all) are linked to a profile which includes sustainability achievements or milestones going back to the 1990s.

The Takeaway

Henkel’s provision of information about its sustainability objectives is exceptional not only in its depth, detail and honesty but also for the use it makes of the web to present it.

Sustainability, or corporate responsibility, reporting has gained much greater prominence on company websites over the past couple of years in response to rising interest among consumers, the general public and stock market analysts. The quality of the reporting varies widely, however, and in the case of performance data is largely confined to global company-wide numbers and goals. Henkel’s coverage, allowing a ‘drilldown’ to individual factories and unambiguous statements of achievement, stands out. And it is delivered through assured use of the web to assemble the data and make it expandable and easily navigable.

Airing its washing’ stains and all on this most public of mediums is a calculated piece of reputation management by Henkel. Openness on such a scale lends credibility to both its reporting and its reporting system. And that in turn wins trust not just with website visitors but also the local communities around its production sites.

First published on 04 August, 2005