Organizations now have to review and revise their occupational health and safety policies and incorporate the learnings from this pandemic for future effective actions

We spoke to Robert Chettiar, Head, Technical Services at NIST Institute Pvt. Ltd to understand how organisations are revamping their existing occupational health policies in the current COVID-19 threat scenario, how this threat brings to spotlight the occupational safety and health of Indian workers vis-à-vis global workforce, how large organisations balance their economic needs wrt to safety of their employees, what more do does the government needs to do to help tide over this crisis and the various activities and training programs they undertake to improve worker safety and health awareness.

Interviewed by Adeesh Sharma

Given the massive threat from Covid-19, doesn’t it make sense now for organisations to revamp their existing occupational health policies?

Indeed yes, organizations are now faced with the dual challenges of containing this disease as well as continuing their business to satisfy their internal and external customers. Though most organizations have an Emergency Response Plan in place, but nobody would have thought of crisis at this level which has transcended international borders . Many organizations acted quickly and immediately by putting travel restrictions on their employees, while those returning from foreign trips were advised isolation. Other organizations relied on a more Reactive mode and preferred to wait and watch and relied on the national government to influence their actions. But it goes without saying that organizations now have to review and revise their occupational health and safety policies and incorporate the learning’s from this pandemic for future effective actions. Some of the factors that they must consider while revising their policies are:

• Establishing a means of getting authentic information from sources like state, national governments and internationally from WHO.

• Determining whether a local or a country wide response is required.

• Ensuring that those who work from home are provided with the required resources both, hardware and software to accomplish their tasks. Such workers are considered Lone or Remote workers and as such their health and safety still remains the responsibility of the employer.

• In case of a local or countrywide lockdown, how to ensure, employees who are working at the clients place are safe wherever they are or if required bring them back to their hometown.

• In such situations been away from family or locked down creates a situation where employees may be stressed and can lead to mental health issues. Organizations should have means of tackling these  ill health issues with been in constant touch with them and if required arranging for professional help.

• The current scenario once again brings to spotlight the occupational safety and health of Indian workers vis-à-vis global workforce. Your comments.

India has always been and will remain the source of labour for organizations worldwide. Also the IT/ITES industry have a large number of skilled workforce working abroad at the clients location. These factors have ensured that we are no longer insulated from what’s happening in other countries and as sizeable numbers travel for work, they may pick up such viruses and fall sick and are also potential transmitters infecting other co-workers. Since the employee has fallen sick while travelling for work and other co-workers get infected while at work, it becomes the employers responsibility to prevent and protect the employees.

How do large organisations balance their economic needs wrt to safety of their employees?

Large organizations are clear wrt Occupational Health and Safety and consider the implementation of  a safe and health work environment as an investment rather than as a cost. We know now for sure that unsafe or poor working conditions lead to incidents and the direct and indirect costs of remedial actions are far greater than putting control measures in the first place itself. Top managements are keen to allocate a sizeable budget for safety training, audits, inspections and recruiting of competent safety professionals. They rigorously review it to ensure that the money is well spent and the benefits are accrued. International standards like the ISO 45001 have ensured that organizations give equal importance to  productivity, quality and safety.

Organizations understand fully that spending on safety makes economic sense as it ensures a healthy and  motivated workforce, brings about a positive image and culture for the organisation and builds customer confidence in them. Safe organizations ensure employee and customer retention and a continued and flourishing business.

What more do you believe the government needs to do to help tide over this crisis?

Going for a lockdown is a proactive step by the government. This will definitely slow down the spread and prevent a medical crisis where a few are treating extremely large numbers. The government should now create a nationwide pandemic policy spelling out clear cut guidelines for employees and employers as to what their response should be.

List the activities and training programs you plan to undertake to improve worker safety and health awareness.

NIST institute pvt. ltd. is active in FOUR verticals, namely Training, Auditing, Consulting and Recruitment & Staffing. As far as TRAINING goes we provide international certification programs from NEBOSH, IOSH, AHA, HIGHFILED, IEMA and BSC. These courses are from the entry level to the more advanced practitioner levels. We are working hard to get international certification courses in SCAFFOLDING and DEFENSIVE DRIVING. Other than these we have a wide array of bespoken trainings customized to the end users requirement. We also intend to introduce training on Workplace Stress and Health and Mental Well Being.

In AUDITING, we do FIRE LIFE SAFETY AUDITS based on various local and international standards for malls, schools, hospitals, warehouses, manufacturing workshops, hotels and commercial buildings. We also carry out gap audits based on the requirements of ISO 45001:2018 and ISO 14001:2015.

In CONSUTING, we provide customer services in implementing the requirements of ISO 45001:2018 & ISO 14001:2015. Soon we intend to start consulting organizations in implementing the Food Safety Standards based in the requirements of ISO 22001.We have completely revamped our Behaviour Based Safety (BBS) consulting package with advanced training for all levels of management of ‘how they can influence behaviour and reduce incidents’. This BBS package comes loaded  with access to our Android/ Apple based Application for recording, reporting, analyzing and improving Human Behaviour.

We are also happy to partner corporates with their RECRUTIMENT AND STAFFING requirements as far as Health Safety and Environment is concerned. Been primarily a training provider we have a large database of trained and competent HSE professionals with us, which helps us in providing large and varied options to our clients.