Members' predictions for 2022

What are IOSH members’ expectations for the year ahead? Will there be changes in legislation or policy, or will it be business as usual? Here are some of your responses. 

David Evans CMIOSH

Director, Corpress; chair, IOSH Hazardous Industries Group

Safety professionals will require agility, adaptability and capability to stay ahead of the curve in 2022. Some areas to keep under review are organisational instability, people and longer-term opportunities.

Already we are starting to see implications from the uneven distribution of vaccine rates across the world, with pressures mounting on supply chains. When combined with tighter financial conditions, including inflation, there will be significant pressure on management to try and adapt.

We should not underestimate the issues of continuing skills shortages, and staff availability and wellbeing, including stress management. Proactive engagement to promote safety and develop new staff will be critical.

Start by thinking about what you may need to do to build your knowledge of the issues that could impact your workplace, and to prepare your organisation to handle change. Use this as an opportunity to network and build connectivity across the organisation. Finally keep a close eye on ‘big data’. It offers tremendous potential for improving safety. Let’s hope it delivers on its promises.

Marta González Moreno CMIOSH

IOSH Logistics and Retail Committee member

The European Commission has recently published its strategic framework for OSH in 2021-27, which gives us a good idea of what is coming in the near future.

The EU strategy focuses on three areas: managing change, improving the prevention of accidents and illnesses at work, and more contingency planning for new health crises.

While regulation will likely take some time, in 2022 we can expect to see advances in the form of renewed and increased guidance on emerging risks such as new work practices, remote working and mental health, with some companies taking the lead in the implementation of the new guidance.

With the lessons learnt during the pandemic, a more strategic and preventive approach will be taken to manage the risk.

Paul Reeve CFIOSH

Director of CSR, Electrical Contractors’ Association

The further development of primary and secondary legislation, along with standards, to improve building fire safety will be a major theme during 2022. The proposed legislation will have wide implications for everyone involved in building-related activities, including health and safety professionals.

We foresee that the long-standing problem of excessive contractor prequalification will be reduced with increasing specification of the Common Assessment Standard by construction, public sector buyers and, hopefully, larger clients. It will also be interesting to see if the government will, as it has in the past, be tempted to run the rule over health and safety regulations that are no longer specifically required to meet EU directives.

Amjad Awwad CMIOSH

Regional health, safety and environment manager, SGS North America

As we enter the third year of the pandemic, we cannot ignore that mental health and wellbeing have become the topic of many personal and workplace conversations. We are already seeing changes in legislation and policies that focus more on the individual. 

More workplaces are placing OSH on the same table as other business priorities. COVID has demonstrated that OSH is paramount to business success. By focusing on the health, safety, wellbeing and value of their employees, more companies will become resilient against future challenges. 
 

Veronica Scarano GradIOSH

Global health and safety compliance and performance management, Arrival

The global OSH workforce is in constant flux. Human-induced climate change is a major driver transforming the world of work. Air pollution indirectly affects workers’ health as well as that of the general public.

While the increase of green jobs and industries will promote low-carbon societies and may reduce hazardous work in traditional sectors, green jobs may also give rise to emerging and unknown risks, such as exposure to chemicals in the recycling sector.

Technological change can improve work/life balance and bring a variety of benefits through the effective use of aggregated data, implementing non-traditional compliance approaches, offering digital access to training, providing tools for compliance monitoring, better environmental monitoring, and improved work recording. 

Francis Rawson CMIOSH

Head of health and safety, easyJet

I think the risks to the wellbeing of our people lie in pandemic fatigue (growing tired of the things being asked of them to keep safe and compliant). This is exacerbated by a change in the cost of living and, in many cases, a change in personal circumstances brought on by the pandemic, giving rise to new pressures outside the workplace, which risks people not being fit and ready for work.

There is a risk that we enter the new year and move on back to what we presume is business as usual. We need to ensure our systems have the resilience to identify and, when possible, deal with wellbeing risks. 

We must, as professionals, do what we can to ensure that safety, health, wellbeing and resilience remain on the corporate agenda and don’t drop off as normality returns. 

Craig Long GradIOSH

Health, safety and risk adviser, G’S Fresh Ltd

Challenges that face the agricultural sector for 2022 will be a shortage of labour, as seen already in 2021. With the National Living Wage rising to £9.50 per hour and margins tight, this may force employers to recruit less or double up on tasks.

This will lead to increasing stress levels and potentially longer working hours. Employers may recruit younger, inexperienced staff because their rates are lower. With machinery becoming bigger and more technically advanced, we could see a rise in accident rates.

Employers need to maintain strict controls within their workplace: a sudden outbreak at any food business could disrupt the whole supply chain and we could again see shortages on the shelves.
 

Joshua Callaway AIOSH

Optimisation and integration manager, Thames Water and IOSH Future Leaders Community Steering Group member

The OSH field needs to be braver in mobilising new technologies and practices suited to the modern world. New artificial intelligence-driven forms of risk assessment, or robotic solutions that eliminate the need for human intervention, need to become embedded in our arsenal.

The most pertinent challenge for my industry – wastewater treatment – is climate change. The herculean nature of the task should not dishearten the OSH professional, but rather embolden them to seek newer solutions. This is a generation-defining issue that we simply cannot fail on, so I see the repertoire of the OSH professional expanding to include a fluency in sustainable practices.

'We are seeing huge issues with recruitment and retention, with those left behind working harder and longer'

Philip Lancashire CMIOSH

Health and safety adviser, Games Workshop

With an increase in work flexibility, as health and safety professionals we need to ensure that we are still providing the same level of support and guidance to all employees, including those who are working from home. This is much more prevalent now with the use of display screen equipment (DSE) at home.

Do your home workers have a suitable desk, chair, screen, keyboard and mouse to work effectively and safely from home? What should you do if an employee wants to work from home but does not have the space for these DSE requirements? These are the concerns that face us as health and safety professionals in the future.
 

Ria Sooknarine GradIOSH

IOSH Council member; communications coordinator, IOSH Logistics and Retail Group

In 2022, I expect three core areas of focus: new and emerging risks, sustainability and cyber security.

Emerging risks may include an increase in psychosocial risks and work-related stress, arising partly from inadequate work design, organisation and management. There may also be increased cases of musculoskeletal disorders from poorly ergonomically designed workstations at home.

Companies have already begun investing in cleaner technologies and methods for sustainable, long-term solutions.

And as businesses transfer to digital platforms for communication and storage of confidential data, there may be an increase in number of cyber attacks.
 

Phil Brown CFIOSH

Head of risk and safety, Society of London Theatre

As an industry, we had a great health and safety record pre-COVID and I’m determined that we don’t let our standards slip now that we are starting to return to something like normal again.

We are seeing huge issues with recruitment and retention, with the danger that those left behind will be working harder, longer and under more pressure.

We need to make sure that the general rules and procedures around health and safety are being adhered to, check where we have gaps in knowledge and experience, and ensure we support the teams we have.

Emma Riordan CFIOSH

IOSH Consultancy Group Committee Member; senior SHE consultant, Sentinel Safety Solutions

OSH professionals have been extremely busy helping to ensure that COVID risk assessments and policies are not only in place, but also stringently followed. These processes must continue into the year ahead to continue to mitigate risks to people’s lives and businesses.

I expect OSH to become more digital and less paper-based, which in turn will make it more readily accessible to those that need it within their businesses.

In the UK, Brexit changes, such as REACH and the UKCA product compliance marking, will continue to
filter through into 2022. The Fire Safety Act 2021 will also begin to pick up pace, with building owners held accountable for complying with the safety guidelines, and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order will see further consultations made in 2022.

I expect people to put more emphasis on their mental health and wellbeing. This has been a time for lots of reflection and job changes so retraining and re-skilling is necessary to ensure that people are safe in their new jobs.
 

Peter Jenkins GradIOSH

Group health and safety manager, Dalziel and IOSH Future Leaders Community Steering Group member

In 2022 we will see conversations about ‘healing’ from a grassroots level across the globe, shaking off the ‘prevention’ narrative of 2021 and focusing on the future.

I expect more societal conversations about health, mental health, safety problem definitions, and what drives division in society (be that politics, beliefs, misunderstanding, social media, media, and so on). Such conversations will provide significant opportunities for OSH professionals to shape, drive and achieve more holistic outcomes, which account for diverse inputs.

I believe we will see time-limited opportunities for OSH to champion breaking open the big issues, steering conversations outside of ‘safety excellence’ into ‘operational excellence’, where the ‘safety of work’ is more value-adding than ‘safety work’.

2022 will not be a year of prevention and division, but the opportunity for rallies, common causes and alignment.

We have shown what we can avoid by getting OSH right through 2021. Let 2022 show what more we can achieve, together.
 

Noel Clarke GradIOSH

SHE assurance manager, ESB

I expect to see increased involvement of OSH and environmental practitioners in procurement decisions, as well as reduced use of single-use products as pressure mounts on supply chains to reduce packaging and other waste.

Changes in consumer behaviour will affect utility companies by presenting new business opportunities related to energy services and product innovations.

Decarbonisation is likely to result in new and more onerous regulations, in the energy and transport sectors in particular, which will influence policy decisions.

I’d like to see higher levels of senior management support for OSH disciplines. We need a shift from the perception of OSH professionals as the safety police to one where they are perceived as a necessary and vital component in every organisation’s structure and decision-making process, and replicating this at a
wider societal level.
 

Kesi Randon TechIOSH

Health and safety assessor, CHAS and IOSH Future Leaders Community Steering Group member

With the increasing importance being put on mental health, and working from home becoming the new normal, I think the future of OSH lies in empathy and emotional intelligence.  

The importance of understanding human behaviour and safety culture as a tool for change is increasingly valued and we can already see many businesses adopting flexible working permanently. There is already talk of OSH moving beyond tick-boxes and into more holistic solutions to common workplace risks. 

Understanding what influences and motivates our workforce, we can produce better procedures and control measures that are less an inconvenience and more a benefit to our employees.  

I hope to see more work done on understanding psychosocial workplace factors and workers’ health.  
 

Nigel Heaton CMIOSH

Director, Human Applications

Hybrid working will continue to attract attention, with organisations struggling to understand that low risk is not the same as no risk.

Workers who cannot stay at home, such as bus drivers, train drivers and warehouse workers, will continue to have a lesser voice and their very significant risks will be lost in the maelstrom of concern about the mental health of those who work from home.

Companies will continue to have employees who suffer fatal injuries due to basic failures to manage health and safety risk. Organisations will continue to blame poor workers for the accidents they have.

The pandemic will stop being the new thing – and the next new thing will come along.

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