As we near the end of the year, we’re taking a look back at some of our highlights from 2022. For our latest Faces of EHS feature, we are sharing some insights from some of our favorite guests this year. Here are their answers to the question, “Where do you see the industry heading in five years? Or are you seeing any current trends?”
Adam Cox
Adam is a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) working as an EHS Engineer for Northrop Grumman.
Now you have me nerding out! We could talk about this for hours… I see so many things on the horizon for which I am extremely excited. From a public health perspective, we have an evolving understanding of how individuals are impacted by work and how their communities are also impacted by it. Total Worker Health® (TWH) and total exposure health are topics about which we will only hear more. From the industrial perspective, I think we will see a proliferation of discriminating technologies like additive manufacturing and robotics. We need to understand how these shifts may eliminate or introduce exposures.
From a technological perspective, I think we are going to see an ever-increasing role of augmented and virtual reality. Can we leverage these approaches for better training or more effective audits? Finally, from a people perspective, we will have to manage risks for an evolving workforce where folks are transitioning to remote work. We need to stay in tune with these workers’ needs and ensure we properly address the ergonomic and psychosocial stressors inherent to this type of work.
Click here to read Adam’s full interview.
Carey Usrey
Cary is the Vice President of Operations at SafetyStratus.
I see several initiatives that are gaining broader ground, and rightly so. One is the practice of Human and Organizational Performance (HOP.) While HOP has been around for some time now, it is gaining more universal adoption. HOP focuses on the concept of failing safely instead of the false assumption that all accidents can be prevented. Tied into the HOP movement is Psychological Safety (the focus of making it safe to communicate within an organization.)
Another great trend, especially as I work for an EHS software company, is the adoption of advancing technology to manage EHS in an organization. The idea of using pens, paper, and spreadsheets should be akin to using stone-age tools for a practitioner. The value of EHS professionals lies in being in the field and communicating with their team, whether that’s with workers or managers. Being tied up performing data entry work with an outdated system should be eliminated.
Click here to read Carey’s full interview.
Christina Roll
Christina is a Worker Safety Risk Consultant at AXA XL, a division of AXA Group.
I think as a profession we are going to continue seeing some things that have come out of the pandemic but will be our “new normal” in the workplace. One is remote work and working from home. Even though sales, office, or engineering teams may work outside our facilities, they are still our employees and need to be cared for as such. Coming up with solutions to ensure they have proper equipment, training and support will be critical. Another is our virtual meeting options. Yes, in-person collaboration is important, and for some situations it is the best thing to do. But having a virtual meeting to review statistics, reports, etc., can be much more beneficial and profitable.
Click here to read Christina’s full interview.