Security personnel with paper-based checklists and basic access control are just not fit for the challenges. Cameras without analytics set up on specific events and alerts mean not much. Security cameras should go beyond just tracking visitors or just events on equipment …and play a key role in managing performance , compliance and efficiency in most sites with a holistic approach.. At city level, smart cities with cameras installed across all key areas will only make sense if effective surveillance is done with embedded analytics in those cameras . By far today and even where you have the right cameras , the recordings from such systems are still used post event in most cases. Weʼre not advocating that everyone should be monitored but we cannot be naive and pretend everyone is an angel either. This is not a discussion about freedom over security or vice versa (like wearing or not wearing a mask) but itʼs all about how personal protection is achieved when people are outside their uncontrolled areas. Crimes happen everyday and effective and sustainable incident prevention starts with attempts to make the environment perfect in the first place. Security companies in order to fulfill their responsibilities in Intelligence surveillance and recognition need a wider network providing input for effective threats and vulnerabilities assessment. They need to cooperate with city cameras owners or install their own for a wider network coverage. In addition they need a dose of diversification to make things happen using all public domain information available from all public sources.

At the time of writing this piece, the covid 19 had caused hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world, shutdown and put to bankruptcy hundreds of businesses as early as the second week of March 2020 and leave as a result hundreds of people without jobs. This pandemic will impact businesses’ growth for a long time. In order to achieve their growth objectives sustainably, there is a need for businesses to define and implement a minimum health management standards to proactively manage the health of employees with focus on the work environment, people health risks prevention and protection measures in most critical projects, decisions.

The covid 19 pandemic showed how widespread health is essential for global prosperity and the same applies to business growth over time. There is nothing new to the fact that prevention plays a key role in delivering health benefits but only few companies have a documented policy that explains or defines the stand of the business on this and what is really to be done to protect the health of their employees and translate this into concrete actions. How do we constantly scan and assess the work environment, office and factories, the processes, chemicals used, the emerging diseases , symptoms building up at and around the sites? How do we screen our people for issues, early warning signs or provide ways and tools that promote or push them to constantly check themselves ? An effective employeesʼ health ecosystem is made up of health risk assessment, employees fitness to work standards, health in project policies, products and substances exposure monitoring together with a new approach in health care delivery leveraging data constantly gathered at the workplace via available modern wearables and connected devices.

Portable wearable devices are available today to monitor heart health and fitness information over a long period, engage workers , their colleagues and families while providing a wider range of data to enhance clinical decision making. Connected devices can also be used to continuously monitor chronic diseases development where for example an employeeʼs glucose level or blood oxygen and other vital signs and data shared as per company policy. AI-powered apps are available or could be developed by companies to enable behavior change by helping their employees adopt and sustain health behaviors. These apps should embed analytics capabilities to determine insights from the collected data from the wearables and connected devices, and feed those insights to employers, health care practitioners and employees patients to improve care outcomes, experience, and treatment efficiency where needed.

Focusing on employees’ health is an investment that yields a good return at the end of the day the same way preventive care saves lives in the long run. The gains achieved more than offset by productivity gains in healthcare delivery.

Employees in good health mentally, physically are more focused and deliver good results and at the same time poor health employees instead are a burden and cost a lot more to companies. An adaptive approach is needed to take care of employees’ health as their age and health risk profile increase.

We have seen recently that a variety of long-term health conditions not treated can have a devastating effect on an individual once in contact with an ordinary inoffensive germ or virus. Taking care of our health and people around us is the challenge of our time and this should be on executives’ success agenda. Managing employees’ health and the energy in the organization with a minimum health management standards is a leading indicator for business results and growth over time. It’s more than critical today to start controlling the in employees health with a digital set of tools that collect and analyse effective relevant health impact data on the environment and workers conditions. You can only effectively manage what you can measure and health is no exception.

We try to explain here as humans weʼre not rational all the time and thus cannot be trusted to protect ourselves or others at all times and in all situations. There are lots of conflicting situations in our daily lives with personal beliefs and assumptions, perceptions, conflict of interests, risk appetite or risk aversion, social norms in some cultures, the “just one last time” syndrome etc…making us not able to make the right decisions at all times. We see this everyday in our life. Will people conform to social distancing when there are no markings on the floor at train stations, in front of shops, pharmacies? Just look at what happens in public areas and you have the answer. The markings remind and push people to do that, at least the starting point.

This has already been the case even before the pandemic. Do we always stick to our end of year resolution to lose weight or exercise an hour a day? Do people stop drinking and driving despite the dangers and consequences of doing so? Do people just quit smoking when they know smoking is dangerous? Health and safety accidents happen every day from failure to comply to basic rules when they exist or not. At least when rules exist, people are forced to apply them and when absence of rules can lead to a disaster this gap should be timely closed by decision makers at all levels. When peopleʼs lives are at stake, time is of essence and instead of wasting time talking about whether people should be entrusted with face masks use , their use -at a time of no vaccine or accepted treatment available- should be made compulsory for all and discussions should rather focus on how we design face masks so that everyone can use them effectively at all time to protect all. This has already been the case even before the pandemic. Do we always stick to our end of year resolution to lose weight or exercise an hour a day? Do people stop drinking and driving despite the dangers and consequences of doing so? Do people just quit smoking when they know smoking is dangerous? Health and safety accidents happen every day from failure to comply to basic rules when they exist or not. At least when rules exist, people are forced to apply them and when absence of rules can lead to a disaster this gap should be timely closed by decision makers at all levels. When peopleʼs lives are at stake, time is of essence and instead of wasting time talking about whether people should be entrusted with face masks use , their use -at a time of no vaccine or accepted treatment available- should be made compulsory for all and discussions should rather focus on how we design face masks so that everyone can use them effectively at all time to protect all.

Do existing masks designs fit for purpose? Should we design specific and cost effective ones for summer, winter so people can breathe normally ? We do have for example protective clothing wear for winter so this should be the case for protective masks too . There is clear evidence in past accidents that people do not regularly wear personal protective equipment given to them when these PPE are uncomfortable, too small, hot inside etc.. or not fit for purpose and this lead in return to injuries.

Itʼs well demonstrated by award winning psychologist and Nobel prize Daniel Kahnman that people are not rational decision makers and lots of factors from basic needs to perceptions, our starting point, the rush to get something done, cultural issues affect what we do, how we accept and react to situations.

In factories, on the roads, on job sites etc…we have rules for people to comply with and there is no discussion around whether to apply those rules or not. If we accept rules are there to protect everyone so why leaving it to some people and situations? Making bad decisions that expose people and or delay their protection. Companies historically have achieved better safety performance by primarily focusing on better equipment design relying on them to protect users. Next, management systems were introduced with a set of tools processes, rules etc… to further reduce the accident rates. Then theyʼve worked on their companies culture, beliefs and values and embed those in their ways of doing things, operating their sites.

In essence , the aim is to influence attitude of managers and workers since attitudes determine behavior, align and shape everyone attitudes and perception of risks , using their sense of collective responsibility and caring for each other to reduce accident rate and protect everyone at the workplace.

Incident prevention in health, safety and environment starts with effective assessment of hazards related to the projects, work to be done and their potential impacts followed by identification of the right and adequate controls starting with a careful design and selection of the right equipments, mitigation measures and most importantly maintaining the effectiveness and quality of the controls in place throughout the project execution period.

How do you get quality, better, stronger, more effective risk assessment done today with less paperwork and expertise ? How do you collect data during projectsʼ execution without sending lots of safety inspectors to site? Do your people have the right and adequate tools that prevent cross contamination, relevant and readily available standards to do a good job, disinfection of equipment?

Itʼs been long established by experts in human errors across all industries and situations that people react to the environment and in incident prevention focus should be on offering or creating the right and perfect environment to start with. The combination of rules, policies and enforcement, systems and equipmentʼs designs provide that perfect environment which should be constantly scanned for breaches or holes for timely intervention. Use of face mask is no exception, clear rules must be set for everyone to wear a mask to protect themselves and others and thatʼs the responsibility of decision makers. Rules without enforcement add little value to people protection.

There is also this debate around whether masks should be used indoor and also outdoor. No one can really anticipate people all all situations he’ll meet when he goes outside where for a walk or even in a car where you may come across someone who asks for help or a routine check up by police or traffic controllers. Its also a sign to the user that somenthing might happen and make him alert and can even help reduce the bad habit of regularly touching faces . The same way defensive driving training equips drivers for unexpected hazardous situations by adopting the right behaviors on the roads and anticipate bad or dangerous driving for other road users.

Wearing masks is not the only protective barrier but it protects and guards against unexpected situations you may encounter indoor and outdoor. We all have responsibility to make the right choices for ourserves and others.

The traditional approach used to fulfill this responsibility is based on lots of paperwork in the office and the field , more people for routine inspection and data collection on incident, safety briefing and talks delivered in groups of people involved in same project etc…In covid 19 post pandemic world this traditional approach does not work anymore. The traditional paper and labor intensive based approach and methods provide avenues for virus transmission in the workplace. How do you manage health and safety with reduced human presence and intervention when the equipment and plants are still in operation?

HSE professionals at operations level historically are and still data collectors and analyst and less involved in building or improving the management system required to effectively manage changes.

The role of health, safety, security and environmental professionals need to evolve and adapt to the challenge of the day: More safety with less people and paperwork: How do you assure and actually protect workers, how do you protect equipment from catastrophic failures and avoid accidental releases, fire , explosion?

HSSE professionals need to be more prepared and better equipped not only for covid 19 but for more to come as this may be a real beginning of a long period of pandemics or unusual events weʼve never taught off . Instead of just focusing and fire fighting, deploying few patching measures for return to work or just install gadgets , the HSE professionals need to think and use a system based approach to address the challenges in a sustainable way. Though the fundamentals of health, safety ,and environment management systems have not really changed , adjustments are needed in the way its pillars are built, implemented and performance measured. Changing and adapting the system is changing the game.

HSE professionals need to trigger, lead discussions around the transformation of their organization from redefining and refocusing leadership and commitment from the top of the organization , HSE policies , standards , documentation, risk management, incident prevention, incident investigation and corrective actions implementation, HSE auditing and performance review
Every good performance starts with good leadership and commitment. How do you get leaders to still fully commit to the few essential things that matter at all times to assure workers and guarantee their health and safety in times like this and beyond when they think about surviving as a business with shrinking revenues, downsizing, closing down operating sites etc…? What does leadership and commitment mean to managers at levels below and what are the expectations from them? What are they really doing now? Do they focus on themselves or their team’s health and safety? Do they just ignore, postpone those dangerous but required regular inspections due to reduced manpower or do they find new ways to get things done in a more effective way?
Real leadership and commitment to health, safety, security and related costs are already hard to get in most organizations in a normal and prosperous situation. It’s shocking to see the unnecessary discussion around use of face masks to protect people when there is evidence that masks do provide a certain good level of protection and use of masks has been long adopted in plants and factories without discussion. This is a leadership issue and HSE professionals have been either absent , quiet or seem to have abandoned the field to people making bad decisions that expose people and or delay their protection. How do the entire relevant organization policies in place at the workplace contribute or help solve the challenges of the day? Are they still relevant ? Do they promote transmission of diseases at the workplace? How do you stop , modify , find ways that reduce people’s exposure to achieve desired objectives? Silent transmission actually occurs in basic things people do regularly and then tend to forget or ignore the inherent risk as times go by. For example, almost all companies have embarked on work from home, is your company policy comprehensive in whatʼs required to continue protecting the health and safety of the relevant employees as they are on duty for the organization? There are lots of cases of contamination from people on work-from-home schedules either because they take more chances outside the office or relax in a family environment or just spend the additional hours gained on other risky activities
Incident prevention in health, safety and environment starts with effective assessment of hazards related to the projects, work to be done and their potential impacts followed by identification of the right and adequate controls starting with a careful design and selection of the right equipments, mitigation measures and most importantly maintaining the effectiveness and quality of the controls in place throughout the project execution period.
How do you get quality, better, stronger, more effective risk assessment done today with less paperwork and expertise ? How do you collect data during projectsʼ execution without sending lots of safety inspectors to site? Do your people have the right and adequate tools that prevent cross contamination, relevant and readily available standards to do a good job, disinfection of equipment?

How do the entire relevant organization policies in place at the workplace contribute or help solve the challenges of the day? Are they still relevant ? Do they promote transmission of diseases at the workplace? How do you stop , modify , find ways that reduce people’s exposure to achieve desired objectives? Silent transmission actually occurs in basic things people do regularly and then tend to forget or ignore the inherent risk as times go by. For example, almost all companies have embarked on work from home, is your company policy comprehensive in whatʼs required to continue protecting the health and safety of the relevant employees as they are on duty for the organization? There are lots of cases of contamination from people on work-from-home schedules either because they take more chances outside the office or relax in a family environment or just spend the additional hours gained on other risky activities. Incident prevention in health, safety and environment starts with effective assessment of hazards related to the projects, work to be done and their potential impacts followed by identification of the right and adequate controls starting with a careful design and selection of the right equipments, mitigation measures and most importantly maintaining the effectiveness and quality of the controls in place throughout the project execution period.

How do you get quality, better, stronger, more effective risk assessment done today with less paperwork and expertise ? How do you collect data during projectsʼ execution without sending lots of safety inspectors to site? Do your people have the right and adequate tools that prevent cross contamination, relevant and readily available standards to do a good job, disinfection of equipment?

• There is more at stake than just putting the basic temperature screening to monitor employee body temperature or provide face masks at the entrance of company premises.

• Effective Health and safety professionals live up to the challenge by going beyond regulatory agenciesʼ prescription and really work on the entire management system needed to protect workers and safety of the business in the long run.

• Its essential to keep working on leadership and commitment from the top of the organization , updating existing policies , standards , documentation, finding and providing new ways to do risk management and incident prevention, address incident root causes, corrective actions implementation and measuring performance.

HSE professionals more than ever can have more impact on their workplace today with all the tools available as we struggle to go through this pandemic period