The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the significance of how critical health, safety, and well-being are to operate businesses successfully. In the manufacturing industry, workers are required to be on-site, so businesses need to equip their employees with appropriate competencies. 

Many recent news reports of COVID-19 outbreaks in plants demonstrate the impact when safety and precaution measures are unsuccessful. Protecting workers’ physical and mental health could improve business productivity and employee retention. 

At the same time, manufacturers’ futures rely on how effectively they can address four significant challenges:

• The changing nature of manufacturing work

• An aging workforce driving an increase in the hiring of younger and less-experienced workers

• Technology changes in the plant

• The unpredictability of economic globalization.

These factors have a direct impact on the occupational health and safety (OH&S) risk to workers.

The pandemic has highlighted just how vital the OH&S practitioner is to supporting COVID-19 safety plans while overseeing the many other health and safety risks in the workplace. Today’s OH&S professionals need a range of skills to support changing environments, including occupational medicine, epidemiology, occupational hygiene, mental health, and human factors.

They also need interpersonal, management, industry-specific and technical skills to equip them for the work ahead.

Manufacturing Safety Alliance of BC has researched the impact of labor market issues in British Columbia’s manufacturing sector for the health and safety profession.

This research included broad participation with manufacturing and union leaders, OH&S professionals, and industry associations across Canada. It has highlighted the need to define a standard set of competencies for OH&S professionals within the manufacturing sector.

To have standardized accreditation and certification, education programs should align to set a standard of competencies to ensure that new practitioners have the skills to be effective. Manufacturing also requires additional specialized training due to the complexity of risk areas.