SHP speaks to Jonathan Gawthrop, Executive Director, Wellbeing, Sustainability & Assurance, EMCOR Group Ltd.
Jonathan believes that safety culture will become “synonymous with physical and psychological safety,” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. He told SHP that, depending on the business and the operations, plans can and should already be in motion for a post-pandemic world.
“Flexibility needs to focus on the task and not where the task is carried out – existing narratives tend to focus on working from home, or the office, and this excludes swathes of the population for whom the discussion is meaningless.”
What will the upcoming ISO 45003 mean for businesses?
Jonathan formed part of the team which reviewed the new ISO 45003 standard through an iterative process once the initial premise had been established. He said: “It should provide a framework which extends the psychosocial determinants of mental health from ISO 45001. It is not auditable, but it is recognisable to adopters of the health & safety standard and draws heavily upon the standards requirement for organisational responsibility as opposed to individuals.”
Jonathan will be discussing this topic in more detail at the virtual Workplace Wellbeing Conference, from 1-3 June 2021. Jonathan’s session, ‘Being psychologically safe-what does ISO 45003 really mean for organisations?’, will take place at 11:45 on Tuesday 1 June.
Jonathan added: “Psycho safety is open to criticism in that it is not measurable as a construct and there is little or no evidence that it has made a difference. So why do it? I will touch upon this in my session.
“I will explain what psycho safety is and will talk about this and the factors that make up the approach from a leadership and an organisational perspective.
The Workplace Wellbeing Virtual Conference was part of a month-long virtual event called Connect, which included the virtual Safety & Health Expo and Workplace Wellbeing Show exhibitions, in 2021.
Hear from Peter Kelly, Senior Psychologist for the HSE, on work-related stress, mental health and wellbeing. Peter has also been working closely with the BSI on the new ISO45003 Standard, a voluntary standard which sets out what you need to have in place as an organisation to improve psychological health, safety and wellbeing.
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In this episode of the Safety & Health Podcast, ‘Burnout, stress and being human’, Heather Beach is joined by Stacy Thomson to discuss burnout, perfectionism and how to deal with burnout as an individual, as management and as an organisation.
We provide an insight on how to tackle burnout and why mental health is such a taboo subject, particularly in the workplace.
