From psychological health to climate risks and AI, CCOHS is helping workplaces anticipate challenges before they become incidents.
CCOHS has played a unique role in helping Canadians understand and address workplace health and safety for decades. What do you see as CCOHS’s most important role today in helping employers, workers and organizations create safer and healthier workplaces across Canada?
We have become a trusted source of information about workplace health and safety, helping people turn knowledge into action. With so much information available today and workplaces facing increasingly complex issues, employers and workers need to know their legislative requirements and understand what prevention looks like and how to put it into practice. Our organization brings credible, evidence-based information from all over the world and makes it practical and accessible for everyone across the country.
What I really appreciate about CCOHS is that we connect research and policy with what really happens in workplaces. Whether you’re an employer trying to improve a prevention program or a worker trying to understand your rights and responsibilities, we can help make that information clear and actionable.
I also believe CCOHS plays an important role in shifting the focus from reacting to incidents to preventing them from happening, and that includes all aspects of health and safety. Also, I don’t think we can separate physical safety from psychological health, respectful workplaces, violence and harassment, fatigue, ergonomics, or the overall work environment. They’re all connected.
The world of work is changing rapidly, from mental health and workplace violence to climate-related risks, new technologies and increasingly diverse workforces. What emerging workplace health and safety challenges do you believe Canada needs to be preparing for now, and how is CCOHS helping organizations stay ahead of those challenges?
One major challenge is that the definition of workplace health and safety is continuing to evolve. Mental health and psychological safety are good examples. Issues like burnout, workload, stress, violence, harassment and social isolation aren’t new, but we’re increasingly recognizing how much the work environment itself can influence these problems.
Climate change is another area where we need to be more proactive. We’re seeing more extreme heat, wildfire smoke and severe weather events, which can cause very real health and safety risks. Workplaces need to be thinking about how these risks will affect their workers and operations.
The impact of technology and artificial intelligence on workplaces is another area of focus for CCOHS, particularly as they become increasingly prevalent in workplace health and safety. New technologies can make work safer in some instances, and artificial intelligence can provide information, but both also have the potential to create risks we haven’t fully considered yet. Factors like workplace specific issues, increased monitoring, workload changes, human-machine interactions, and work pace need to be considered from a health and safety perspective. CCOHS provides guidance and resources on these issues, drawing on credible, evidence-based information reviewed by experts with the appropriate knowledge and experience.
And finally, we need to recognize the diversity of Canada’s workforce. Workers come from different backgrounds, have varied learning and working styles, and bring unique experiences and needs. A safety program is only effective if people can understand and relate to it.
These are areas where CCOHS can help workplaces take a preventative approach to safety, by monitoring emerging risks, translating evidence into practical guidance, educating people, and bringing different perspectives together.
Ultimately, I think the question we should constantly be asking is: What could change in the workplace tomorrow that could affect someone’s health or safety, and what can we do today to prepare for it?
That’s the kind of proactive prevention mindset that I think CCOHS can really help foster across Canada.
Learn more at ccohs.ca.
