Disruptive technology was likely to have a significant impact on health and safety professionals, managing directing of Vita Safety, Ian Hutchings, told delegates in the final Safety talks session.
Disruptive tech organisations tended to be heavily weighted with technology at their front end, and were usually budgeted to make significant losses for their first few years. “They disrupt markets, like Uber or Airbnb, but they also disrupt existing supply chains and suppliers. That’s something we really need to think about as health and safety professionals, because they don’t tend to have assets. With Uber it’s people’s own cars, with Airbnb it’s their homes.”
Disruptive technology represented the power of commerce and information being put into the hands of the user, he said, but what were the likely impacts on health and safety professionals? “Traditionally, people would ask you for guidance around the application of regulations, but there’s been a shift towards giving people that information in other ways.” This included the growth of e-learning and use of podcasts “rather than putting people in rooms for days on end”, he said. There was also the potential associated with the ‘internet of things’ for areas such as the remote monitoring of risks.
Clearly, younger people coming into the profession were extremely tech-savvy and expected all information to be available via their devices, he said, although older workers were also becoming more comfortable with technology. “So we do need to think about how we can push this information out across our organisations.”
Among the other likely impacts were less time needed to research answers, as well as remote observation of work and documents – “why go somewhere and do an audit when everything’s available online?” There was also the loss of the ‘human touch’, however, and the sheer rate of change could be a significant issue for some people, leading to increased levels of stress.
Advantages, however, included better use of resources, face to face time when it “mattered the most” and putting tools and advice in the hands of the end user. “All of this is happening,” he said. “Let’s not bury our heads in the sand.”
