In 2018, workplace injuries cost a whopping $170.8 billion, an average of $1,100 per worker. How did we get here?

At the heart of any good EHS program is health and safety management that sets it apart. And as an EHS professional, you know how much of a difference good or bad management can make.

We talk about occupational health and safety all the time on this site. But a lot of the time, we don’t pause to do deeper thinking about what occupational health and safety actually means.

In the year of the coronavirus pandemic, online isn’t just a matter of convenience. It’s a matter of safety. And as the pandemic continues to wear on, that concern isn’t going away anytime soon.

We all take health and safety in the workplace seriously, which is why we should be willing to use every resource possible. You never want to experience a workplace accident and think that there was something more you could have done to prevent it.

No matter how much attention a company pays to comply with health and safety requirements in the workplace, it’s always possible for some things to slip through the cracks. This is why we double-check our work by following protocols and having quality assurance workers.

Building your own health and safety team can feel like building a house. You need the right bricks, the right mortar, the right tools, the right blueprints, and, of course, the right skills for the job. And like a house, every team is a little different than the next.

Most of the time, when you turn a critical eye to your health and safety program, you’re looking for ways to help your program succeed. Unfortunately, there are many ways that a program can go astray, even when you’re trying to emulate successful programs.

Going to work every day is a lot of things. It can be exciting, engaging, frustrating, even boring. But it’s never supposed to be unnecessarily dangerous. That’s the goal of health and safety in an organization, to prevent workplace illness and injury by minimizing risk. It can be daunting but there are resources and strategies that can help.

Pop quiz: who is responsible for health and safety in the workplace?