Achieve a safe and healthy workplace in 2021 `with ISO 45001

The world of work is changing around us like never seen before – the only constant now is change itself.

These changes impact heavily on health and safety and significant transformation in the workplace is now being seen. Organisations have been forced to cope with rapid transitions in the last eight months since the pandemic’s onset with the digitalisation of workforces and remote working revolutionising the way businesses operate for the foreseeable future.

It is our responsibility as HSEQ professionals to support companies through these challenging times. The introduction of ISO 45001, the new global health and safety management system standard, aims to meet the shifting needs of organisations and is designed to ensure businesses consider every factor that impacts their employees and other interested parties.

The framework encourages companies to think about occupational risk as a whole and supports continuity plans while setting the standard for assembling global crisis management teams. ISO 45001 is a simple, easy to use, remote system that integrates health and safety into businesses far more efficiently, so it becomes an intuitive process as opposed to a tick box exercise. 

By far the single biggest challenge we face as a sector is management of change. ISO 45001 essentially helps organisations prepare for the unexpected. A big focus area with our clients at Quensh is active implementation. For many organisations, their risk-based systems are well established, therefore ISO 45001 provides a good platform for managing activities. We gauge the level of support the leadership may need to make key risk-based decisions strategically.

A time for new approaches

The employment market is also experiencing a huge shift, driven by the likes of Digital Skills gap, IR35 legislation, the nature of employment opportunities and the impact of working from home. It is clear that both employers and job seekers require flexibility and guidance in the approach to engagement.

To meet this changing industry demand, Quensh recently diversified its service portfolio and is now providing a focused HSEQ recruitment service based on supplying staff, contract, fixed-term, and ad-hoc personnel on either an individual or multiple position basis via either an onsite or remote operation.

With the impact of the COVID pandemic and the legislative changes that will impact the contractor community in April 2021, we have been asked the question: “Is it the right time to launch a dedicated HSEQ recruitment service?”

The decision was driven by a multitude of factors, but primarily by talking to our client base and gathering intelligence, it became apparent that it is not just about recruiting the right person at the right time. It is about a deeper understanding of specific health and safety manpower and project requirements which requires the skills, experience and knowledge that our HSEQ consultative services bring to the table.  

A greater focus on mental health

One of the main emerging risks we envisage in the coming months is how we manage new risks and hazards with employees working from home. The mental wellbeing of all employees will also be a vital focus area in 2021.

The psychological aspects of working from home are so important. Organisations are gaining a much deeper grasp on the issues surrounding mental health and ISO 45001 is well placed to support businesses in this area. This greater focus on mental health will be on a par with the focus on safety and around the worker participation element of health rather than simply the physical safety attributes.

One of the benefits of the changing work dynamic is that the stigma associated with the psychological health has all but disappeared which can only be a good thing. However, organisations need to consider that their employees are individuals and individual circumstances differ; what works for one person may not work for another.

We as a sector are clearly used to managing risk, but we must collectively consider the much broader risks going into 2021 and aim to implement the new framework processes as seamlessly as possible for the physical and mental health benefits of all.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE.