From better monitoring employee health and reducing their physical stress, to keeping staff away from sources of risk. In addition to protecting workers, safety technologies can boost employee morale, reduce staff turnover and control costs associated with insurance.

Virtually any company can benefit from investing in workplace safety technologies. Businesses that involve physically intensive operations—such as construction, transportation and warehousing, or agriculture—can see the greatest benefits from these four types of safety technologies:

1) Textile technology or smart clothing

Today, there are wearable technology devices that can help reduce the frequency and severity of worker injuries. This type of technology is available in four categories:

• Physiological monitoring. Devices that track body temperature, heart rate, respiration and other physiological measurements can help determine whether a worker is fatigued or stressed and therefore at greater risk for injury.

• Environmental Monitoring.  This type of technology can alert your employees if the air quality is poor or temperature conditions may cause injury.

• Proximity detection. This type of wearable technology can be incorporated into Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)—for example, hard hats—and can help prevent employees from entering dangerous areas or getting too close to machinery. 

• Exoskeletons and exosuitsThese assistive devices provide extra strength for physical tasks such as lifting heavy items or standing for long periods of time. In doing so, they prevent injuries and also allow injured workers to return to work more quickly.

It is important to consider that adopting some of these wearable technologies may raise concerns among employees regarding their privacy.

2) Drones and robots 

The use of robots to perform repetitive and lifting tasks has long enabled companies to reduce workplace injuries. Now, your company can improve workplace safety even further by assigning higher-risk tasks to sophisticated drones and high-mobility robots.

 

Drones—Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)—can be used in businesses such as construction or manufacturing companies to reduce employee exposure to falls and other risks. How? Through inspection and monitoring of operations. Similarly, robots can access dangerous or hard-to-reach locations, such as tunnels or storage warehouses, to perform inspections and collect samples.

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3) Security apps

Using smartphone apps is one of the easiest ways to leverage technology to assess, monitor and improve workplace safety. Available apps—many of which are free—allow workers and supervisors to assess work tasks and conditions by, for example, measuring hazardous noise, promoting safe ladder use and safe lifting, and providing information on handling hazardous materials. Some industry-specific apps also support workplace safety by helping businesses comply with occupational safety regulations. 

4) Virtual and augmented reality

Today, many vendors offer virtual reality-based safety training programs, in which employees can practice using equipment and simulate potentially hazardous work environments. Virtual reality can also be used for training in practices such as fire evacuation. Looking ahead, virtual reality and augmented reality will likely be increasingly used to simulate tasks and gauge potential risks before workers begin their work.

The high cost of workplace accidents

When evaluating your company's occupational safety and workers' compensation insurance options, consider the costs of premiums and handling claims. A workplace injury can affect morale and productivity, as well as generate costs associated with staff turnover and absenteeism. Ask your insurer about services that will help you improve workplace safety and reduce accidents in the first place. Your insurer can help you identify the most appropriate technologies to improve workplace safety in your company.

At Chubb, the optimization of our services has allowed us to benefit policyholders in Cyber policies by restoring web pages or communication structures, backing up digital files or their loss, supporting the protection of the company's liability to its clients and offering the possibility of responding to incidents immediately. Consult with your insurance broker about how this protection can boost your business.

Source: https://www.chubb.com/co-es/pymes/articulos/4-tecnologias-para-mejorar-la-seguridad-en-los-espacios-de-trabajo.html