Health & Safety Summit for Irish Industry Professionals

Health and safety are certainly to the fore in a global pandemic.  The past year has reinforced the significance of exacting systems, training and communication to ensure safer workplaces and individuals.

The challenges of a unique public health crisis, remote working, distributed workforces, rapidly changing work practices and environments, and the yet unknown legal issues that may arise, are all testing the health and safety industry.

Thursday 19 November next will see HR and health and safety professionals engaged online in an Employee Health Safety & Wellness (EHSW) Summit that addresses these and other important issues for businesses and organisations.

Registration is free and available at https://ehswsummit.dulann.com.

Hosted by dulann, a Wexford-based eLearning and safety management systems provider, the free summit features practical contributions from leading industry professionals in organisations including ISME, Irish Pride and Glanbia.

Damian Donlon, CEO of dulann, says the focus is on sharing experiences to assist in learning across the industry.

“Our EHSW environment is more challenging than ever, with rapid change and operational demands.  But a lot of the principles remain the same, and by sharing learnings at this online forum, industry professionals can support each other.”

Distributed Businesses, Remote Workers; Legal, Operations and Communication Challenges

David O’Connor, HR Manager at Weltec Engineering, will address the very unique challenges that face the many businesses managing a distributed workforce and remote workers.

Gillian McMahon of HR Solved will discuss the latest health and safety legislative updates and how business operators can stay on the right side of the law.

68% of the 10,000 inspections and investigations carried out by the HSA in 2019 resulted in enforcement actions, and many of these also involved legal actions concerning employees and members of the public, McMahon says.

While the focus of more than 5,000 HSA workplace inspections between May and September this year was Covid-19 related, a considerable increase in claims and penalties demanding legal counsel is more than likely, the HR expert claims, adding that understanding the legislation is key to defending claims.

Health and safety training and resources, like so many business operations, are now largely digital and online, and remote working and distributed workplaces emphasise the need for accessible cloud-based solutions.  Damian Donlon of dulann discusses the digital transformation of employee health, safety and wellbeing to paperless systems.

100% of accidents involve people, and it’s not always what we do that causes accidents, but how we do it, Frank Burton, Group Head of Human Resources at Pat the Baker says.  His presentation is on the effectiveness of a behavioural based safety culture.

Nicola Cooney, Environmental Health & Safety Manager at Glanbia Ireland, will talk about communication and consistency being crucial to safety culture in a multi-site environment.

Reflecting the business dimension of safety standards, Ross McCarthy, Chairman of ISME, relates how health & safety is a strategic factor in helping organisations secure lucrative contracts in Ireland’s €33 billion procurement market.  The ISME boss will also discuss insurance reform.

The expansion in Ireland of ‘The Lighthouse Club’ will be outlined at the Summit by Anissa O’Connor.  The construction industry charity deals with thousands of individuals and families in the UK every year needing practical advice, emergency financial aid and support on a variety of wellbeing issues.

Dave Greville, founder of Heartsafety Solutions, will discuss the importance of the Cardiac First Response (CFR) community and convenient new online and blended learning options to achieve accreditation.

Alan Connolly of training consultants, Rubikon, outlines how to assess the effectiveness of training as an intervention.  Explaining that only 50% of training investments result in organisational or individual improvements, Connolly says it is important to know which 50%?

Safety culture and organisational change is the topic of Petrus Wall, Environmental, Health and Safety Manager at Magna International, who addresses how to engage an entire workforce in the positives of a safety culture.

The focus of the EHSW Summit 2020 is on ‘Real People. Real Experiences’, organisers say.  Attendees can ‘dip in and out’ online throughout the day, according to specific interests, and all talks can be accessed for two weeks afterwards.

The link for free registration for the 19th November event is https://ehswsummit.dulann.com/