Health and safety as a professional field has evolved heavily since its early inception in the twentieth century. Modern technology and new schools of thinking are constantly being adopted in the industry. This increased development is set to continue in 2020 with plenty of new practices being adopted into health and safety. Here are some of the latest breakthroughs that are set to improve the safety record of companies around the globe.
- Increased AR and VR in training and general work
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are still in the early stages of their development and adoption, however, in 2020 it is predicted that their use will go up. Current applications include providing workers with an ‘augmented headset’ that guides them through their work and reduces the chances of mistakes and incidents occurring.
More virtual reality is also being used to better train employees. Giving them a visual representation of situations that might occur in the future will help bridge the gap between training and real experience.
- Higher integration between mobiles and health and safety procedures
With more an employees being increasingly connected to their phones, many industries have started to release app-based technology that can take on more of the administrative work in health and safety.
The modern construction site now has a variety of different apps that site workers use to log that certain health and safety checks have been made and inspections carried out. This trend is likely to continue in 2020 with more time being freed up to perform more value-adding work to a businesses health and safety.
- Increased focus on health and wellbeing through new policies
In addition to technological improvements in health and safety more is now being done to safeguard employee health and wellbeing, and we predict this trend to carry on in 2020. More and more health and safety conferences are incorporating wellbeing as one of their key topic points and more policies are being introduced to promote good health and wellbeing in the workplace. This includes the growing presence of mental health first aiders, and wellbeing facilitating policies like cycle to work schemes and team-building exercises.
- Increased robot integration in routine tasks
As software develops more of the routine admin work in health and safety is set to be done by computers and machines in 2020. This is will benefit organisations who’s health and safety staff will be able to devote their time to more activities that will improve their company’s health and safety record.
Staying up to date on the latest trends will keep your company competitive
2020 is set to be an important year from a health and safety perspective with more companies adopting helpful technologies and developing policies that better protect their workforce. Staying up to date on the latest developments in health and safety is going to be important both from a compliance and competitiveness point of view.
