Technology is Shaping The Future Of Workplace Safety

Workplace safety has expanded and deepened beyond the physical safety aspect. That is why we need technology’s speed, breadth, precision, and real-time nature to help enterprises ensure workplace safety.

If workplace safety was just one point in the employee checklist some years back, the pandemic has changed it to a headline. So now workplace safety has assumed new contours and gravity. And it is no more about ‘not being sick. Instead, it is about being healthy, immune, and fit in every sense – emotional, mental, physical – especially in an era of a distributed workforce.

The Crisis Changed The Meaning Here

According to the ILO (International Labour Organization), the pandemic has touched nearly every aspect of the world of work, from the risk of transmission of the virus in workplaces to Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) risks which emerged as a result of measures to mitigate the spread of the virus. Moreover, the scenario has been compounded with new concerns due to shifts to new forms of working arrangements, the widespread reliance on teleworking, and new risks like psychosocial risks and violence.

A recent ILO report indicated that countries need to put in place sound and resilient OSH systems that would minimize the risks for everyone in the world of work in future health emergencies. More so, teleworking has been essential in limiting the spread of the virus, maintaining jobs and business continuity, and giving workers increased flexibility. Still, it has also blurred the lines between work and private life.

It also shows that small and micro-sized enterprises have often found it hard to meet official OSH requirements because many have lacked the resources to adapt to the threats posed by the pandemic.

The situation worsens for the informal economy. Many of the 1.6 billion workers, especially in developing countries, have continued working despite lockdowns, restrictions on movement and social interaction, and other measures. They had been, thus, put at high risk of catching the virus, yet most did not have access to essential social protection, such as sick leave or sick pay.

The pandemic has irreversibly changed the landscape.

Employees want employers to prioritize their safety and well-being when they return to the workplace. This is why companies are looking for ways to protect people and productivity — including extending remote work options and modifying the workplace. 

The Strategic Translation

In the PwC’s 24th Annual Global CEO Survey that looked at CEOs’ perspectives and listed top aspects that will impact their competitiveness,

A New Dictionary From Technology – Helps a Lot

So how can HR teams and leaders help here? Can they use technology to inject safety in various ways and at different places of an employee’s journey? Yes, they can. Especially by streamlining their hiring and talent management areas. By using solutions like Oto_Qualify, a cutting-edge tool for non-tech assessment, you can be sure of:

• Making unbiased decisions, spend valuable time focusing on the right-fit talent, and transforming your people strategy
• Spotting and hiring the most qualified candidates
• Finding the right-fit talent
• Achieving greater diversity by assessing aptitude, skill, personality, and potential without biases
• Covering a wide variety of domains like Communication, Qualitative Aptitude, Logical Reasoning, Capital Markets, Investment Banking
• Assessing candidates remotely with secure and live intelligent remote proctoring, customized assessments, automatic test creation, mobile assessments, and flexibility 
• Tracking results using intuitive performance analytics– to analyze and compare your candidate pool
• Measuring only the metrics that matter and setting benchmarks to know who to hire next
• Saving costs and time, minimizing unconscious bias and building a data-driven hiring strategy

While technology is only one step in the whole package, it can surely add a lot of speed and coverage for organizations that have a serious intention of keeping their employees safe and happy.