7 Occupational Safety and Health Trends to Watch Out for in 2019

Adeesh Sharma
As we welcome the new year, it’s also time to look back and ponder on some of the emerging occupational safety and health trends that we observed coming last year and those that we believe shall make a big impact in the OSH domain in 2019. These trends we believe have the potential to shake up the way OSH managers have been dealing with safety issues and if adopted in the right earnest, can propel your organization ahead of competition. Let’s begin.

Employee Wellness to be on the radar
Most employees keep up with stress at their workplaces, irrespective of their role in the organization. Business demands, economic instability, new technologies and changes in industrial environment, all contribute to increased pressure on the workforce. This makes employees more prone to major accidents and not only affects their physical wellbeing but also their mental health. From lack of job satisfaction to drop in productivity, employee stress can ruin an organisation’s prospects in a huge way. Companies would do well to focus on employee wellness and ensure they have systems and processes in place that reduce employee stress.

Lend your ear to employees
A good way of keeping your employees happy and to ensure maximum participation from them in increasing an organisation’s productivity, you must regularly listen to their feedback. This provides accurate insights on what’s happening on ground and help organizations make course correction at the right time. Nowadays technologies provide a lot of support in ensuring the feedback is captured in the right manner and at the right time to ensure timely action. This way you also ensure a lot of employee engagement and put in place better evaluation and monitoring systems for the future.

Retraining workers on safety aspects
Lot of workers across industries face obsolescence due to lack of awareness of latest technologies and equipment and alongside with it the various safety aspects associated with their use. There has to be renewed effort to train workers regularly to keep up with the safety enhancement requirements and also to ensure they remain productive all the time. The cost of bringing more qualified workers onboard is much higher and therefore the right training programs must be set in place to alleviate such a need.

Increased Data Analytics to Reduce Risks
Data is the new oil and yet with all the buzz around data analytics not many organizations make full use of it. In the new year, expect more and more organizations to make full use of the data analytics tools available to make more informed and better decisions aimed at improving the safety and wellness of employees within their organizations. Expect Big Data to go beyond making economic decisions and help organizations make the right decisions in internal risk management.

Next-gen employees to help improve OSH culture
The last few years have seen a lot of millennials joining workforce across industry verticals. As the demographics in the workforce change, there will be increased focus on improving the safety culture across organization through the use of latest technologies and safety equipment. Organisations shall be forced to redesign workspaces, focus on improving ergonomics and provide more technological advancements in the working conditions.

Focus on Safety managers
Increased awareness around safety laws and legislations will improve the way a safety officers role is looked upon and we expect a vast increase in their profile and stature across all levels in an organization. Just a few years back not many organizations had safety personnel onsite. But today with new roles emerging, we say a lot of focus on safety consultants, safety engineers, risk managers and wellness consultants.

Smart devices for personal protection
For many years, personal protection remained confined to gloves, masks, spectacles and overalls. However, now with increased adoption of technology across domains, we see a lot of smart devices such as smartphones, smartwatches, fitness trackers and more getting a prominent role in ensuring the overall safety of an employee. The role of IoT is also getting prominent with connectivity among sensors that monitor, record and analyse biometric data of employees. These devices help send alerts to various stakeholders about the location and movement of employees in real time and also for any safety related incidents that might flare up. You can also check if any employee is bypassing safety systems and also keep a tab on an employee’s vital health parameters such as blood pressure, heart rate, blood alcohol content, oxygen levels, calories burnt and steps covered. The number of workplace wearable devices will reach a whopping 75 million by the year 2020.

In conclusion
Workplace safety is no longer an option but a necessity for any organization. It plays a huge role in enhancing the productivity of an organization and companies are increasingly focused on taking workplace safety to the next level by investing in right technologies and training of employees.