Findings from a new research report* reveal the majority (78 per cent) of environment, health and safety (EHS) professionals surveyed believe a failure to manage and address health and safety risks could see their company lose business to competitors who can better demonstrate success in this area.
The research report reveals the top six most common challenges faced in health and safety:
- #1 Employee participation in H&S initiatives (41 per cent)
- #2 Employee education and training (33 per cent)
- #3 Difficulties around implementing a culture of safety (32 per cent)
- #4 Incident prevention (31 per cent)
- #5 Lack of proper technology (29 per cent)
- #6 Compliance with regulations (28 per cent)
Commenting on the report, Intelex’s Gavin Stephenson, Director, EMEA & APAC, said: “Improving employee participation in Health and Safety initiatives is by far the number one issue experienced by EHS professionals, and they recognise that this participation is critical to business success. Without it, they will struggle to improve their organisational safety culture – leading to either a loss of business or loss of staff, or worse, both, to better performing competitors.”
The research also highlights worrying statistics around workplace incidents, which show the need for organisations to improve their EHS performance:
- 62 per cent of respondents acknowledge that, in the last 12 months, their organisation has had workers injured, ill or in an accident.
- 20 per cent of these respondents believe that this type of incident could easily occur again if they fail to make the necessary improvements.
- 38 per cent of those surveyed do not collect the right data when incidents occur. This is further impacted by just as many of those surveyed (38 per cent) having a limited understanding of health and safety management systems.
However, despite the challenges, the research report revealed a number of positives – not least that the majority of respondents are determined to find long-lasting solutions to their EHS challenges:
- 80 per cent of respondents agree that executives at their organisations understand the implications of poor performance around health and safety.
- 87 per cent believe implementing EHS-specific technologies and applications would resolve most of their health and safety-related difficulties.
Gavin added: “As well as the human challenges of recurring workplace incidents, there is clearly a significant technological challenge as well, with organisations lacking effective reporting tools. Ultimately, getting people on board with EHS initiatives means removing barriers to pursuing the right course of action, which will result in fewer incidents, making organisations safer and more efficient.”
The Intelex report, Engaging Workers, Growing Business, Protecting the Planet, will be released in three stages, with the first chapter launched Thursday 26 May 2022. The following two chapters will be released throughout June 2022. To read the first chapter of the report, please visit https://bit.ly/ILXEHS
