The best OHS advice, or rather innovative thinking, is frequently coming from those experts from outside the traditional OHS background.
A case in point could be a presentation made by prominent Australian demographer, Bernard Salt, at one of the many Safe Work Australia Week events in South Australia. Salt provided enough information about population changes that OHS professionals and regulators became uneasy about many of the challenges that they will face in the next few decades.
Consider yourself how the following facts provided by Bernard Salt will affect the way you manage safety in your workplace:
- A ‘demographic fault line’ occurs in Australia from 2011, when the baby boomers start retiring.
- More older workers will be in a position to retire than there will be younger workers to replace them.
- Older workers will stay at their jobs for longer rendering them susceptible to body stressing and similar injuries.
- Many older workers will scale down their work to a few days or one day a week, and as a result may not be fully attuned to the workplace safety risks.
- To top up the Australian workforce (and tax base) a substantial migrant intake will be required.
- These prospective workers (and entrepreneurs) will need to be educated in the Australian OHS culture.
If the OHS profession is to truly be “proactive”, it is these sorts of forecasts that should be anticipated.