7 Workplace Health and Safety Trends that Will Make a Big Impact in 2019

Just a few more weeks to go, and the year 2018 is about to come to a close. Here, in today’s post, we take a look at some of the emerging workplace safety and health trends to look for in 2019 and beyond. We hope these predictions help your organization prepare for the upcoming year and stay ahead of your competitors.

Without further delay, let’s jump right into it.

Increase in Focus on Employee Wellness

Today, stress is one of the major factors taking a toll on all employees, irrespective of their position in the company or the industry they work in. Increasing workplace demands, economic instabilities, changes in the industrial environment, poor lifestyle and food diets – all contribute to an increase in workplace stress.

Employers are waking up to the fact that stress not only makes employees less productive but also leads to major accidents in the workplace. When workers are burned out due to stress, it affects both the individual and the organization in myriad different ways – from loss of job satisfaction to drop in productivity, stress impacts workplace functioning in a whole lot of ways.

Companies will not just focus on workplace safety, but also will emphasize the overall wellness of an employee. In office yoga sessions, daily workouts, team retreats will become more common in the coming year.

Better Feedback Systems – To Capture the Voice of the Employees

Capturing the voice of employees will become more important to organizations in the coming year. Businesses will focus on capturing employee feedback more frequently. Technology will play a major role in capturing feedback and providing businesses with accurate insight into what’s actually happening in the workplace.

For instance, companies will provide employees with mobile apps to report accidents, complaints, and other suggestions in real time. You can expect to see more of employee engagement and feedback surveys and better evaluation and monitoring systems in the coming year.

Focus on Retraining Workers

Currently, there are plenty of job openings across fields that remain unfilled due to a lack of qualified workers. Instead, of bringing in new workers to fill up these positions, companies will focus on providing the right training to existing workers.

Several studies state that bringing new employees onboard is quite expensive. It involves plenty of factors to consider like – the employee’s attitude, his/her rapport with the team and the organizational culture of the company and so on.

In the coming year, you can expect more and more companies are focusing on providing the necessary up-skilling or retraining to existing workers, to get them ready for more demanding positions.

Big Data to Make a Big Role in Risk Management

Big data is one of the biggest trends in the last few years. Yet, in spite of the buzz generated by it, not many organizations make use of it. In the coming year, you can expect more and more organizations using big data to make better and informed decisions.

Big data will go beyond making business decisions. You can expect to see it used in the right way for internal risk management programs and more.

A Radical shift in Workplace Demographics

In the last few years, more and more millennials and even Gen-Zers are becoming a large part of the workforce. As the workplace demographics evolve, there will be a dynamic shift in the culture, management, and ethics of the workplace.

Millennials and Gen Z people are totally unlike the previous generations made up of Gen-X and baby-boomers. Organizations will have to change the workspace, redesign jobs, and provide more facilities to accommodate the younger generations.

Good to go now

Over the last few years, we have seen a vast increase in the need for safety personnel at all levels in an organization. Just a few years back, not many businesses had a safety manager on-site. But, today with an increasing focus on Employee Health and Safety, there are plenty of new roles emerging.

These roles will replace some existing HR jobs and make space for new jobs like:

• Safety consultant
• Safety engineer
• Occupational Health and Safety Specialist
• Safety manager
• Risk manager

If you’re looking for further help on designating the roles of these specialists, finding the right personnel for these roles, or deciding which roles work for your business, don’t hesitate to
get in touch with our safety experts here at Totalika.

Smart PPE Devices

For years, Personal Protection Equipment consisted of gloves, masks, overalls and the likes. With the increase in popularity of smart devices such as smartphones, smartwatches, fitness trackers and more, you can expect an increase in smart PPE devices in the workplace.

IoT is playing a major role in upgrading workplace safety. Today, there are a plethora of smart safety devices on the market like – sensors that monitor, record and analyze biometric data of employees. These devices accurately track the location and movement data of employees in real-time and free them into an integrated workplace safety system.

These systems send alarms when it finds that a particular employee is bypassing workplace safety systems. By notifying the safety manager of such safety bypasses, accidents can be prevented in the workplace.

You can expect PPE equipment with inbuilt sensors that track a user’s heart rate, blood pressure, steps covered, calories burned and other vital data. Apart from these, the sensors can also monitor an employee’s blood alcohol content, sweat levels, blood oxygen levels and so on.

All these help to monitor and track an employee’s fatigue and alertness, thereby reducing the potential for workplace accidents.

A study by Tractia estimates that the number of workplace wearable devices will reach a whopping 75 million by the year 2020.

Final Thoughts

As we can see from these trends, workplace safety is no longer an option. It’s an integral part of all businesses and plays a huge role in the efficient functioning of businesses. Companies are focusing on taking workplace safety to the next level by investing in the right technology and training.

Which of these trends do you wish to implement in your organization in the coming year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.