COMPLIANCE & RISK ASSESSMENT DRIVEN BY AI


The UK retains one of the best safety records in the industrialised world. The latest statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) offer some additional encouragement, with a slight fall in fatal workplace injuries from 142 reported in 2020/21 to 123 in 2021/2022.


At the same time around 441,000 workers sustained a non-fatal injury for 2020/2021, with slips, trips or falls (33%) and handling, lifting and carrying (18%) accounting for almost half.


Businesses that adopt a proactive approach to safety are leading the way in reducing these incidents. They recognise the importance of developing strong OSH management systems and are able to demonstrate a high level of regulatory compliance.


They also instil and maintain a strong, positive safety culture as they understand this encourages employee buy-in and acceptance of workplace practices that minimise risks. This in turn can reduce unsafe behaviours, a significant contributor to workplace incidents.


Increasingly, they are also reaping the benefits that powerful technology tools like artificial intelligence (AI) can provide; by making sense of the huge realms of OSH data business collate, this emerging technology can help to identify incident trends and near-misses.


The starting point for every business must be a risk assessment which employers have a legal duty to carry out. Not only do these identify the main risks and the control measures that are needed, but the requirement to consult employees in the process improves their understanding of the risks they face and increases their compliance with any procedures that are introduced to control them.


Risk assessments provide a strong OSH foundation but business must be far more proactive and move from reacting to events and actively seek to prevent incidents in the first place. The world of work is evolving at a staggering pace as technological innovations introduce new hazards and risks. Arguably, the role of the OSH manager and management systems is more important now than ever.


In response, businesses are increasingly using data collection software to improve their understanding and management of OSH risk. By drawing on historical data inputted into their incident management systems, OSH managers can, for the first time, use this digital intelligence to train AI-driven software to monitor work activities anonymously and in real-time. As a result, they can build a picture of workplace trends and identify any potentially risky actions that could lead to a near miss.


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This is critical because even with the best will in the world, even the most proactive businesses that have cultivated a strong safety culture won’t have the resources to monitor individuals, not to mention the entire workforce, 24/7.


Using AI to spot potential and actual near-misses allows OSH managers to intervene before the workplace activity develops into a more serious incident. The anonymity that AI provides also allows the OSH manager to use the incident as a valuable learning tool with the wider workforce, raising their awareness of the risk and hopefully changing their behaviour, which drives up compliance and helps keep everyone safe.


At a strategic level, AI gives OSH managers a better understanding of the wider business risks and arguably means they can produce more effective risk assessments that can be easily adapted as the risk landscape continues to evolve.


Ultimately, AI can be the tool that supports businesses to be more proactive and improve their overall safety performance. The benefits go beyond preventing workers from being seriously injured and potentially even killed; it could also contribute to further reducing fatal and non-fatal injuries highlighted earlier in the HSE statistics.


Protex AI, an AI-driven risk management company based in the Republic of Ireland, is part of this movement to encourage a more proactive approach, providing enterprise OSH teams with the tools to make better informed decisions that can create a safer work environment.


Our privacy-preserving platform plugs into existing CCTV infrastructure and uses its computer vision technology to capture unsafe events autonomously in a wide range of workplaces, including warehouses, manufacturing facilities and ports.


www.protex.ai www.tomorrowshs.com


Businesses are increasingly using data collection software to improve their understanding and management of OSH risk. Using this alongside artificial intelligence can be game-changing, says Protex AI.


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