Firms says it is offering its employee safety software to any company looking to track the potential exposure of their workers to the coronavirus.

Today, any company, organization, or authority can get free access to the Safeture software platform to have their employees’ travel matched with those hot spot locations most impacted by the virus. Safeture can import trip data from travel agencies plus get real-time location data from mobile phones to be analyzed against with real-time updates of the virus’s location. This is especially important for large international companies, which carry an extra high exposure risk. All employees will get access to Safeture’s app to get real-time alerts and notifications.

“Right now we are at a critical stage for the coronavirus, and it is crucial companies identify employees who have been in high-risk areas so they can contain the infection and prevent it from spreading into the organization,” said Magnus Hultman, CEO of Safeture. “The situation is changing rapidly. From today Iran and areas in Italy, suddenly completely different places in other countries can be affected.

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Register for your free trial @ https://www.safeture.com/

 

Jan van Veen says firms need to protect themselves first and then accept and adapt to the inevitable long-term affect of the virus.

We all need to take our responsibility to keep our colleagues, our clients’ staff and the public safe. The Coronavirus will be with us for a long time, probably years. We should anticipate a scenario that will have to continue carrying out measures to control the virus.  This could have a substantial impact on our society, economy businesses and our clients' businesses. If we stay close to our clients, we have the best chances to mitigate the impact and reinforce the loyalty of our clients.

Three Phases

In the next six months we should all walk through the next three phases:

Response: Right now we have to control the crisis and mitigate the direct impact on the short term.

Review: Assess what we can learn from the impact of the current outbreak on our business and clients business. What are the vulnerabilities and weaknesses? What are our strengths and what are our opportunities? Which other trends are being triggered? Often, an economic crises and new disruptive technologies can accelerate market disruptions. This could be a chance for significant and innovative change. 

Redesign: How can we make our business more agile and less vulnerable to these kind of outbreaks? Think about safety, capacity, supply chain, remote capabilities. How can we enhance our value propositions to better support our clients? How should we evolve our operating model and business model? Stay flexible and be prepared to adapt.

 

Jan van Veen was part of our panel at Field Service News' Covid-19 Emergency Symposium which you can listen to here.

Augmentir have announced free use of its Remote Assistance Tool for front line workers to help companies address travel and social distancing issues around pandemic.

Augmentir have announced the free use of its Remote Assist support and collaboration tool for the remainder of 2020 to help industrial companies address the growing workforce and supply chain disruption created by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Employee Health a Priority

As Covid-19 continues to spread across North America, the CDC has suggested that businesses implement remote work policies and travel restrictions to help slow the spread of the virus. The situation has become more troublesome over the past few weeks, and many companies are looking for ways to help limit business disruptions while keeping the health of employees a top priority, influencing Augmentir's decision.

Russ Fadel, Co-Founder and CEO of Augmentir, said, "COVID-19 is impacting the lives of people all around the world, and is forcing a change to the way we work. At Augmentir, the health and safety of our employees, as well as the employees of our customers and partners is the Company's top priority. Therefore, in a response to COVID-19, Augmentir will be offering its Remote Assist tool at no cost through the end of 2020 in an effort to help the many businesses affected by the sudden increase in work-from-home policies and travel restrictions resulting from the global outbreak of the virus. We hope to curb the predicted impact this virus will have on industrial companies and will remain steadfast in our commitment to serving the industry we call home." 

During this challenging time, video-conferencing, chat, and remote support and collaboration will be more important than ever in maintaining the wellbeing of employees while also enabling people to continue to work and businesses to operate. Augmentir's Remote Assist tool helps to minimize the negative impact that COVID-19 is having on businesses by providing a remote collaboration and support solution that can be adopted in less than 60 minutes, so that workers, technicians, and customers can get the support they need to do their jobs without compromising health, safety, or productivity.

Companies that sign up will have free use of the tool for the remainder of 2020, will be able to: stream live video and audio to remote experts to improve issue resolution and remote knowledge sharing; guide field technicians and customers with live annotations for enhanced collaboration and support remote users on their existing devices as well as AR-enabled smart glasses.

Commenting on the company's decision, Russ Fadel, Co-Founder and CEO of Augmentir, said, "COVID-19 is impacting the lives of people all around the world, and is forcing a change to the way we work. At Augmentir, the health and safety of our employees, as well as the employees of our customers and partners is the Company's top priority. Therefore, in a response to COVID-19, Augmentir will be offering its Remote Assist tool at no cost through the end of 2020 in an effort to help the many businesses affected by the sudden increase in work-from-home policies and travel restrictions resulting from the global outbreak of the virus. We hope to curb the predicted impact this virus will have on industrial companies and will remain steadfast in our commitment to serving the industry we call home."

Health and safety is becoming more prominent in service. Engineers who work remotely are more susceptible to risk and firms are now recognizing the hazards they face daily. Following a Field Service News Think Tank held in London November 2019, attendees discussed global implementation of safety standards and dealing with sub-contractors.

Service is a global business. Companies employ engineers who work around the world. The challenge comes in ensuring this work is carried out safely regardless of their location.  

 Statistically, it seems standards do differ globally. According to Global Estimates of Occupational Accidents and Work-Related Illnesses, a 2017 study which included input from the International Labour Organisation, the World Health Organisation and the European Union, workplace deaths are highest in Asia, accounting for two thirds of the annual 2.78 million total, with Africa and Europe contributing less than 12 per cent. According to the report China and India have the highest workplace fatalities which can be partly attributed, researchers say, to the size of the respective countries  

One way to ensure safety consistency is through technology, for example, an electronic ‘safety passport’, a form of digital accreditation for engineers that would show if the correct training and correct equipment was being held. If not, then the worker would not be given clearance to carry out the task. Brent Holmes, Field Service Portfolio Director, Ericsson explained: “We’ve targeted driving as probably the biggest risk area, but equally obviously climbing, confined spaces, AC power and the list is endless.  But we need to be making sure that we have a tool to be able to manage our staff and our subcontractors. So one project that we’ve started to look at and where we’ve started to pick up some very good best practice around is in beginning to award passports to individuals so they can work for us,” Holmes continued.  

"If a contractor was doing something, you’d give them a yellow card or a red card.  Red card, or a cumulative of yellow cards, we’d off site them.  You’re not here again, and that’s it.” 

 

This was a concept that echoed with a number of the Think Tank members around the room. As Holmes further clarified Ericsson’s approach in this area adding that introduction of Safety Passports allowed for correct accreditation and that it identified a clear set of best practices to ensure that all the relevant safety training, as well as all of the right equipment is in place at all times.   

“You might think these are trivial,” Holmes added “but believe me it’s critical” .However, more manual deterrents such as a consequence management system to stop third-part contractors veering away from on-site standards is equally effective. Here a yellow/red card system can be deployed, where being shown the latter, or an accumulation of the former, can result in that firm’s contract being terminated.  

As Mark Wilding, Director of Global Aftermarket Operations, Hexagon Marketing Intelligence explained: “Imagine one of our main contract suppliers doesn’t go through the right checks and balances with those individuals that he or she authorises to carry out an activity on their behalf.  If we find this out, we will issue a yellow card, if they get two yellow cards then we will stop doing business with them. That’s what we had in the power sector. 

It was more if a contractor was doing something, you’d give them a yellow card or a red card.  Red card, or a cumulative of yellow cards, we’d off site them.  You’re not here again, and that’s it.” 

Both these solutions work yet implementing them in countries where safety is not engrained can be difficult. Here a safety management programme underpinned by strong and robust safety culture can be just as effective.   

Cheryl-Anne Sanderson, says reframing your approach to networking could reap more benefits than you realise.

We often hear how important it is to network, yet barriers always seem to be put in our way, these include: 

• Not enough time 

• Do I want to network? 
• It's too formal and I'll feel out of place 
• Operation deadlines 
• Management/leadership that sees networking as a threat. 

All the above in my view is just a myth or a perception. More often than  not, there is time to do it you and you just need to make it happen. Networking shouldn’t be a have to do you should actually want to do it. If you're passionate about your industry and you want to do the right thing, not just for yourself but for the next generation of service leaders, then why wouldn’t you do it?  

Surroundings 

 If you feel you need to change or adapt to the environment then change the scenery then surround yourself with a network who appreciate the version of you; who want to share your passion and drive; and wants to work with you in a collaborative manner. Networking doesn’t need to be formal and doesn’t need to cost money, for example, you could set up a local network instead of joining something corporate which can be costly in terms of travel etc. So while these networks are instrumental and essential to our industries, don't be put off by creating your own personal network; local to the businesses that you serve. You could even cross network across sectors - networking doesn't need to be the same people from the same industry - the magic happens when you bring creative minds from a diverse range of businesses together.  

Wellbeing 

Don’t let the day-to-day of business as usual take over your life. We all deserve time away from the job and while networking could be seen as personal the majority of the time, the firms we represent also get the benefit of our appearance, so just be aware of this. 

However, networking is great for our own wellbeing: sharing experiences and hearing people stories, knowing that the challenges you face are faced by others too can be really affirming. You can also collect great idea and tips that motivate you to do more; that makes you do your best; and you can share with your own team spreading the positivity amongst your colleagues. 

Sharing is caring 

So to sum up, I'd like to say sharing is caring. Networking within your industry is just another way of sharing, and most importantly: caring. 

Workplace health and safety has come a long way in recent years. Companies are now more aware of the affect that workplace incidents can have on their employees as well as the financial implications it brings. It’s a shift prompted by stringent regulation and legislation – particularly in the UK and Europe - and a desire to build health and safety into the business structure. As part of our coverage of the latest FSN Think Tank Mark Glover reflects on how the group discussed workplace safety and why culture is crucial…  

When it comes to a implementing a workplace safety culture, companies must lead from the top with a board and management buy-in that filters down through the organization to the shop floor.  

Its integration however is a huge business challenge, a process that firms should viewed as a strategic change management process. Of course, any large shift in thinking and mentality is difficult, especially if an attitude has become embedded.  

Two things that can alter attitudes to safety is understanding the brand and financial cost to a company if an incident occurs. In the UK stringent legislation and heavy fines serve to encourage firms to take their safety processes seriously, it means some companies now build the potential consequences of an incident into a business case that forms their health and safety strategy. 
One example of this is the utility firm EDF who operate a number of power stations in the UK. These assets are high-risk and high-profile, and the firm in an effort to embed safety into the culture of the organization now associate health and safety with its bottom line; if you have a nuclear power station that is not inherently safe then it will affect its share price quite significantly.    


A financial influence is one strand of safety adoption, yet to become embedded in a company’s outlook, health and safety should be approached psychologically. Today, when health and safety consultants come into a company tasked with improving its culture, they do so with the mind of a psychologist rather than a tick-box instigator.    

Firms with a large employee count, which is often the case in manufacturing, can find it difficult to home in on individuals who have always done safety a certain way which can often be outdated and potentially dangerous.   

"More generally, health and safety suffers from bad PR, perceived as something that enforces red tape and stifles creativity and productivity..."

Psychologically then, humans will eventually apply an unconscious bias to tasks they carry out on a day-to-day basis. Once something becomes routine then it becomes an unconscious process. Carrying out risk assessments is a common yet important task in the workplace however Its repetitive nature makes it vulnerable to such a bias, and it remains one of the key challenges in the sector to ensure employees are engaged when carrying out such activities.   

Jan Van Veen, founder, More Momentum commented, “What you need to do to change that is make sure that everybody understands the pitfalls and then establish key habits and put a system in place where you can communicate effectively with your workforce to say ‘I think we are falling in this pitfall’.” 

 

Building on this point Mark Wilding, Director of Global Aftermarket Operations, Hexagon Marketing Intelligence added: “One of the thing that we looked at that I think we overlook quite a lot is the human factors associated with this, because there are, and you talked about stress, there are human factors in people’s day that cause them to overlook or make mistakes, which ultimately could end up in a hazard or a risk.   

And if you don’t get underneath the human factors aspect then we can put all the safety bulletins out but we’ve not addressed the underlying distractions, things that go on.” 
More generally, health and safety suffers from bad PR, perceived as something that enforces red tape and stifles creativity and productivity. Although this attitude has improved in recent years it is still seen as something of a burden to employees; something to catch them out. Having a pragmatic approach to health and safety that is backed up with strong statistical evidence, can be a sensible approach rather than introducing a critical author with a clipboard.   

Looping back to the beginning of this section, it’s paramount to embed health and safety in a company’s overall strategy and a firm’s performance culture more generally. Most service firms strive to achieve general quality and integrity in everything they do and would never dream of cutting corners in a service task. The same thinking must be applied to safety.  

It is an unavoidable fact of field service delivery that our engineers and technicians invariably spend as much time behind the wheel of their vehicle as they do with our customers. Whilst we are all of course trying to reduce ‘screen-time’ as much for productivity reasons as anything else, we mustn’t overlook the fact that vehicle maintenance and driver safety play a massive role in ensuring our field workforce are safe. In the second feature of a four-part series reflecting on a deep dive discussion into health and safety at the most recent FSN Think Tank Mark Glover looks back on the discussions that the group held on driver safety…  

It’s generally agreed that workplace driving – irrelevant of vertical sector – is one of the biggest risks for service engineers. Again, the very nature of a lone worker means travelling to a job is a fundamental part of the process. With the number of cars on the road combined with driving hazards more generally there exists an increasing risk of driving accidents. 

Add workplace pressure to the mix and the risks increase further. Sensible driving policies are one way of dealing with this, however a middle ground must exist that where policies must encourage productivity and efficiency while being practical, realistic and enforceable.  

 Service engineers come across a number of hazards in their day-to-day including working at height and confined spaces although those in attendance agreed that driving – irrelevant of vertical sector – was one of the biggest risks. Again, the very nature of a field service engineer, or the very nature of a lone worker means travelling to a job is a fundamental part of the service process.  

 Indeed, it was a common theme across all members of the group that driving safety was of paramount concern. “We’ve targeted driving as probably the biggest risk area,” commented Brent Holmes, Field Service Portfolio Director, Ericsson explained: 

 It is also a high-risk part of that process, perhaps more so than working at height or slips, trips and falls - which the group agreed certainly shouldn’t be overlooked - however, a key distinguisher here is that driving links directly into a service engineer’s productivity, something which can affect safety.  

 

"The customer is unhappy as the asset needs to get back-up online as soon as possible. So, there is customer pressure, management pressure and also business pressure..."

 

Mark Wilding, Director of Global Aftermarket Operations, Hexagon Marketing Intelligence explains: “As management we need to get the tasks done and the schedule completed. With driving between jobs and driving home at the end of the day and with driving hazards generally and the number of cars on the road there is obviously an increasing risk.”  

 He pondered the use of company driving policies and practicalities, where engineers would have to stay in a hotel after working twelve hours on the road, for example.  “So, if you’re 20 miles from home and you’ve done your twelve hours, you’re supposed to check in. They [engineers] will leave at a silly time just so they can be in their own beds at night. And this is a risk that is always there. “Equally there is pressure if they’ve only got three days to complete a task. The customer is unhappy as the asset needs to get back-up online as soon as possible. So, there is customer pressure, management pressure and also business pressure, therefore the productivity that you’re trying to improve means the driving time in the car is almost trivialised.  

 “That for me is a concern because you can put in some hard-hitting policies which will have a massive impact on productivity and efficiency and expense and it’s about finding the happy balance, which is practical, realistic and enforceable.” Jan van Veen said these pressures and targets can be detrimental to workforce, “It then leads to stress and pressure which is not in favour of safety and probably not in favour of customer quality also,” he explains.  

 “This is often the issue when you start incentivising or putting in targets. It then leads to stress and pressure which is not in favour of safety and probably not in favour of customer quality. “So, if you are really are serious as top management around safety, you should start working on relieving pressure on people by putting in place better tools, mechanisms, processes and structures so they can be performed without sacrificing safety,” he said. 

One of the unfortunate aspects of modern times is the increasing rise in mental health challenges as our society becomes more and more pressurised. Field service engineers and technicians, who are often lone workers are particularly vulnerable to such pressures and we need to be doing more to monitor and assist in this area. This was the consensus at the latest FSN ThinkTank held in London, UK at the end of 2019. Mark Glover, who attended the session reflects on the day’s conversations… 

Recently, a societal shift towards mental health has identified the workplace as a potential trigger point. Employers now recognise the importance of their workers’ wellbeing. In the UK alone, staff absence from mental health issues accounts for 70 million workdays lost, costing employers approximately £2.4 billion per year.  

In the service sector, workers who operate alone are more susceptible to having their mental health affected, given the remote nature of their environment. As a manager, it can be difficult to keep tabs on an engineer therefore creating the right touch points to ensure a dialogue is taking place can be vital when it comes to monitoring the mental health of your technicians. Too often, field engineers are just sent out and forgotten about.  

The technicalities of health and safety for lone workers are slightly different to the traditional version of what we see as safety. Incidents, such as slips and trips and cuts in the office, are approached with a traditional risk-assessment, however lone workers should approach their tasks, which are generally more fluid, with a dynamic risk-assessment; the process of mentally observing, assessing and analysing an environment to identify and remove risk. This allows individuals to identify a hazard on the spot and make quick decisions regarding their own safety.   

It’s an approach that requires a certain amount of trust on the part of employers who must be certain that these checks are taking place in their absence. However, this must be balanced by allowing the engineers a level of autonomy, something they value enormously. Looking over their shoulder from afar and monitoring their performance will only push a worker away. Everything comes back to time for an engineer; it is probably the most precious commodity and the challenge is to blend safety into their routines while not affecting their productivity. Mark Wilding, Director of Global Aftermarket Operations, Hexagon Marketing Intelligence spoke to this point very eloquently saying: “If you don’t know your workforce you don’t know their mental health, you don’t know their mental capacity. If you’re not close enough to them, you’re not looking after those elements. Ultimately their mind isn’t on the game and they make mistakes.  And I think we overlook this area quite a lot.” 

"How do you understand the state of mind of a guy that you haven’t seen for months because he’s been out in the field..."

It is indeed an often overlooked, yet absolutely crucial part of understanding the wellbeing of our field workers, especially if they are often isolated in a lone working role. Everyone within the ThinkTank session was in agreement that this should be an area of greater focus and also that there were still some societal taboos that needed to be overcome. 

“I know that there’s this still much of stigma associated with mental health, but I think it’s more prevalent than any time now we’re in a litigious environment where you make a mistake and there’s quite significant corporate penalties now as opposed to before.  But the fact is if we still don’t pay it enough attention and remote workers is hard.   

How do you understand the state of mind of a guy that you haven’t seen for months because he’s been out in the field for that long? All too often in field service, companies don’t have the right team, team leader and management ratio structures. If they don’t have the right touch points the how can they be close enough to be keeping tabs with their individual team members? How can they be close enough to understand what they’re going through?  

It’s really tough and those are the things, I think, we tend to forget about. Sadly, it often feels that it is the case that they’re just the job, a field engineer. We sort of just send them out and forget about them and we shouldn’t be doing that.” 

From a management perspective, creating a more sensible management framework that develops capabilities and structures can contribute to a more productive and efficient working environment.   

If you are really are serious as top management around safety, you should start working on relieving pressure on people by putting in place better tools, mechanisms, processes and structures so they can be performed without sacrificing safety.

 

"We are building the evidence base that proves government must act on air quality," says British Safety Council.

An app developed by King College London as part of the British Safety Council’s Time to Breathe campaign is building on a growing evidence base that proves outdoor workers are exposed to air pollution well above the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommended limits. However, huge variance in quality and coverage of air quality measurement across the UK suggests the problem could be greater than previously thought.

The app gathers data based on London’s air quality monitoring stations and gives individual users a read-out of the air pollution they are exposed to at work. The first data release from British Safety Council confirms that outdoor workers are put at more risk than average Londoners. The WHO says that air pollution is now the world’s largest single environmental health risk and that reducing air pollution could save millions of lives. As well as campaigning to improve ambient air quality the British Safety Council is working on practical solutions to reduce the risks for outdoor workers.

Over six months the Canairy app has gathered data from a sample of Londoners. Outdoor workers were exposed to air pollution averages higher than guidelines for NO2, particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and Ozone. Some maximum exposures were nearly two thirds higher than recommended WHO limits. The workers were in two groups, some mostly working in offices and others mostly working outside. Although both groups were exposed to high levels of air pollution, those working outside are exposed to worse pollution than the average Londoner.

The British Safety Council launched Time to Breathe in March 2019. The campaign offers the Canairy app free to give workers and employers information about air pollution exposure as well as providing free advice and guidance. The British Safety Council has called on the government to adopt WHO guidelines in the new Environment Bill. In March 2020 the British Safety Council will be taking the campaign to Manchester to highlight the limitations of air pollution monitoring outside London.

The British Safety Council’s Head of Campaigns Matthew Holder said:

“The first data release confirms that outdoor workers are being exposed to high levels of air pollution with all the health risks that carries. Canairy confirms what we also thought – if you work outside in a city or near a busy road you are putting your health at risk. What is new is that we now have the technology for individual workers to record their exposure. With Canairy and other forms of measurement we are building the evidence base that makes the case for change. As a first step we must urgently adopt the WHO guidelines on PM2.5. But we also need investment in measurement so we can understand who is at risk and how people can limit their exposure to harmful air pollution.”