New Years and anniversaries are traditional times to celebrate achievements, learn from mistakes, check where we are now, look to where we want to be and decide how to get there. For occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals who value continuous development, they're just one of many waypoints on a journey of reflection and improvement.
Halfway through our five-year WORK 2022 strategy, IOSH is delivering projects and programmes to enhance OSH. Many of these are opportunities for you to up your game as well.
Why not use the turn of the year to take stock of where you are, where you're going, why, and how you'll get there? What will you decide to do in 2020 to extend your professional journey and become more adept and more fulfilled? Are you ready for new challenges?
Our new Competency Framework has already been described as a "game-changer" by leading OSH professionals, and by now you will have had a chance to access more detail about its 69 competencies across 12 areas divided into three categories: Technical, Core and Behavioural.
You will be able to use these to show you what strengths you have, where there are needs and gaps in knowledge and experience for you to fill, and areas you might not have considered that can provide solutions to enhance you and your workplaces.
What's the purpose of all this? Consider IOSH's vision of 'a safer, healthier world of work'. That's a common cause we can all support, and every day our members act to achieve this.
IOSH is taking our vision to the world and aligning with others who share these goals. Through our strategy, we collaborate to influence through businesses, governments and non-governmental agencies worldwide.
Recently, I was in Helsinki, Finland, as keynote speaker at the Vision Zero Summit. We looked ahead to a world where we invest more purposefully in prevention, using our knowledge and relationships to achieve changes in attitudes and behaviours.
This is a vision where everyone, wherever they are, goes home without harm every day. It aligns with what we aim for as well, and IOSH wholeheartedly supports Vision Zero.
Through IOSH's Global Working programme and developing partnerships, we are taking forward ways to realise our vision. We have an exciting programme of events planned for 2020 to take IOSH and excellence in OSH to the world.
We're fortunate to have the most global presidential team ever, from the UK, Europe, Hong Kong, West Africa and the US, and members and volunteers representing us in many other places, enabling us all to share OSH good practice worldwide.
In Nigeria, for example, we have entered a partnership with the Lagos State Government to train people in OSH. I am delighted that our first West Africa conference will take place in Lagos on 22 January 2020 to launch work in West Africa. This will be followed by a series of events in other regions.
