‘Guardian angels’ and jargon busting guides... we take a look at some innovative tools and approaches to hazard awareness.
Often derided, ‘elf and safety’ gets a bad press these days, tailor-made as it is for tabloid fodder about unnecessary bureaucracy stifling industry with too many rules and regulations.
This ignores of course the constructive legacy of workplace campaigners such as Shaftesbury, Plimsoll and others from the Victorian age onwards in improving the lives of working people. It overlooks too the rarely credited role of H&S in driving innovation within its own sphere of activity.
A prime example of this is the expansion and increasing sophistication of the wearables sector, whose output impacts the process industries.
Take Spacebands, a company whose contact tracing device is the brainchild of a Bristol-based duo of former schoolfriends spurred originally by the onset of the pandemic. It quickly shifted 20,000 units internationally for its products during the onset of the Covid-19 threat.
The onset of mass vaccination could have been the end of the story as the casualty levels receded and with it the medical demand for such products. Yet lateral thinking by co-founders Ronan Finnegan and Harry Kimberley-Bowen enabled the company to pivot towards the market for workplace safety.
Backed by some £1.3 million investment, it has launched a package of wearables for accident prevention.
Catchily nicknamed ‘guardian angels for employees’, the products monitor and warn wearers in real time of a variety of potential dangers. Coupled with that, event data can be collected for analysis to provide data-driven decisions for safety protocol development.
The cost of workplace accidents to UK industry, estimated by the Health and Safety Executive at more than £20 billion annually, includes employer liabilities under the Injury Costs Recovery scheme – reimbursing the NHS for spending linked to workplace injuries.
So there’s a clear business gain as well as an enhancement to H&S provision and brand reputation. As with predictive maintenance, predictive health and safety provides the data for efficient policy decisions and better productivity. But if businesses and employees are getting wiser to the benefits of health and safety, there is work to be done still when it comes to H&S experts dealing with both parties.
Like any area of expertise, the sector comes with its own abundant terminology, a language that even practitioners might admit can be somewhat alienating for the layperson and a barrier to communication.
Lateral thinking by co-founders Ronan Finnegan and Harry Kimberley-Bowen enabled the company to pivot towards the market for workplace safety
Managing director of leading occupational health and safety and environmental training consultancy RRC, Richard Stockley, admits it’s a problem not only for outsiders but also newcomers to the field.
He says: “For those just starting out in their career, it can be daunting getting to grips with all the industry’s legislation and terms, particularly within HSE. This is even more challenging for global teams where phrases can easily be lost in translation.”
The company is addressing the situation directly with the publication of the first two in a planned new series of guides.
Health and Safety Terminology and Environmental Terminology are pitched towards new entrants with an emphasis on jargon busting.
Target readers are those seeking easily digestible information for those beginning a career in health and safety, working in a relevant industry or experienced practitioners who need to communicate HSE information with non-HSE colleagues.
“Our new range of accessible, quick reference guides looks to address this and help make the transition into the industry as easy as possible. Each of our guides have been designed to easily explain some of the more technical aspects of the industry, so learners can feel more confident as they become diligent HSE professionals,” states Stockley.
“These first two guides are just the beginning, with more due to be released later this year touching upon themes like mental health and vulnerable workers.”
