Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) magazine is the premier workplace health and safety publication in Canada. We cover a wide range of topics ranging from office to heavy industry, and from general safety management to specific workplace hazards.
Issue link: https://digital.thesafetymag.com/i/1299031
F E A T U R E 30 www.thesafetymag.com/ca Subscribe to the award-winning publication for OHS professionals PRINT PUBLICATION Delivered right to your doorstep or office every 2 months REAL-TIME WEB SERVICE Breaking news, features, white papers, podcasts, special reports and more REGULAR E-NEWSLETTER News service delivered straight to your inbox twice a week Learn more and subscribe at www.thesafetymag.com/ca COS Product ad.indd 2 COS Product ad.indd 2 10/06/2020 10:55:42 pm 10/06/2020 10:55:42 pm overload and confusion. And a lot of organizations, on one hand, they want to try new things that work and make their organizations more effective and lower risk. On the other hand, there's the struggling with 'how do I keep this simple for our team?' So, rather than just trying to adopt everything, most organizations are more willing to abandon new tech if it doesn't work for them. I think this forces more companies to talk with each other about what is working for them and share their experiences a little bit more openly. I think increasingly they realize that the competitive edge with tech is more than how you execute with it rather than just whether you have it or not. "It might be in 2022, but the introduction of 5G networks will unleash a lot of potential of what can be done because suddenly, for the most part. There will be no bandwidth limitations at all in most areas. And I think you'll see not just an increased adoption of existing tech but you'll probably see some new things out there that can exist in a world where you don't have any limitations on bandwidth for the internet." [SB] "Organizations are collecting more EHSQ and non-EHSQ data now than at any point in recorded history. And that volume and velocity of data is virtually impossible to assimilate, aggregate and analyze with manual human analysis fast enough to create the insights businesses need to respond to today's threats. As a result, businesses will need to rely even further on advanced business intelligence and analytics tools, including machine learning and AI, to help them efficiently transform their data into insights to drive reliable risk management. "Augmented reality (AR) has shown promise in helping to support cross- training programs. As systems are becoming increasingly complex, social distancing practices [are] reducing peer-to-peer cross training and older employees exiting the workplace, AR will provide further opportunity for workers to learn how to conduct work safely through augmented imagery, video and real-time connections to remote experts. AR tools also offer enhanced flexibility for hazard identification, with the ability to use physical markers and real-time proximity warnings to help identify hazards when moving through an area, so the user can take the appropriate action." [RH] "I think that this has been the most rapidly changing market space we've seen in a generation, if not several. We'll probably see more regulations also come into play over time. Of course, we aren't excited by the pandemic but excited that we can work on trying to address a major public health concern." [AB] "I also think that as this tech gets more rolled out and adopted, the good tech companies will take that feedback and continue to innovate their products. I think a lot of these products are still, quite truthfully, in their infancy; they still have a lot of time to be refined. But that means that the best is probably yet to come." Workplace health and wellness as a strong focus for tech companies Tech that helps with social distancing such as wearables, touchless and IoT devices The introduction of 5G networks, expanding bandwidth limitations Automated tech and cloud services as employees continue to work from home Augmented reality (AR) as a tool for safely distanced training OHS TECH TRENDS IN 2021