Industrials

<p>That the current situation with the Covid-19 pandemic will have serious implications for the future of many companies is, I believe, a comment beyond challenge, but what specifically will be the challenges for occupational safety? Most certainly there will be a renewed focus on health and hygiene, perhaps more health checks for our workers, but where will more fundamental changes be required for a new safety paradigm? We will most certainly need to be better prepared for emergency situations and better understand the implementation of responses, contingencies, and business continuity when the emergency or extraordinary conditions presents themselves.</p><p>I have witnessed many emergency drills in the past which all tended to focus on physically removing a casualty from a worksite, but it is rare that we ever practice what is required for dealing with something like we are experiencing with the Covid-19 pandemic; the closest I ever saw to an exercise close to this dealing with this scale of incident was when I was working with MTR in Hong Kong. A full day was spent with appointed representatives from across the organization, being fed with scenarios and complications to test the resilience of the company as well as the resourcefulness of participants.</p><p>It is essential that in completing exercises on our response to emergencies and re-establishment of normal operations, we include a large slice of the organization, from Accountants to Engineers, Human Resources to Storekeepers, each contributing to holistic solutions to the emergency scenario.</p><p>There can be no doubt that practicing the extraction an injured person from a TBM or confined space is essential, it is just as important to run through the actions required in scenarios of an emergency that could impact the business in more fundamental ways, such as Covid-19 is currently doing.</p>