Health and Safety Reimagined

Safeguarding consumer and workforce health is of the highest priority amongst businesses and governments. What COVID-19 identified, regardless of its severity, is that it is imperative for companies to plan and prepare for future large-scale outbreaks as they have the potential to be more disruptive to the ongoing operations of an organization than cyber-intrusion.

Witnessed across all sectors and industries, institutions have put in place basic protections for their employees and customers, and companies have activated ‘no-travel’ and ‘work-from-home’ policies including physical-distancing-at-work.

The industry is adapting by changing working norms – making remote work practical and simple, when possible – and developing new norms to the physical workplace, such as positive hygiene practices, personal protective
equipment and amended policies. The regulation of industrial safety and health needs constant adoption of innovative approaches to improve effectiveness and enhance monitoring capabilities.

• How can the international community develop a unified vision on the future of safety and health in industry?
• Given there is no standard solution to operating a factory during a pandemic – what new set of safety standards and health strategies need to be put in place for future factory floors to remain functional? How can we plan ahead?
• What platforms can be leveraged to train employees on self-discipline with regards to specific safety and health issues?
• How can Big Data, AI and Data Analytics help empower companies and SMEs to predict pandemics and develop training simulations to mitigate risks related to the health and safety of their workforce to increase organisational resilience?
• Are the HSE manuals pre COVID-19 obsolete now? Should IT teams and CTO’s play a more pivotal role in shaping the post COVID-19 HSE policies?