Educational groups sign on to improve OHS capabilities
Looking to improve the safety of workers around the world, 40 organizations — including five from Canada — gathered in Singapore on Sept. 3 to sign an important agreement.
Representatives of employers and employees, educational institutions, policy-makers in governments and public authorities, occupational health and safety (OHS) professional organizations, and experts in OHS joined the International Network of Safety and Health Practitioner Organisations (INSHPO) and its members to sign the Singapore Accord — a commitment to improving OHS professional and practitioner capabilities so they can more effectively guide and lead the creation of healthier and safer workplaces.
“The global framework represents the most significant initiative ever produced on the international stage by the health and safety profession, across multiple countries and jurisdictions,” said INSHPO president Eldeen Pozniak, in a release.
“It displays for the first time a common commitment to define the critical roles which are taken up by practitioners and professionals to prevent workplace injury, illness and fatalities, in a language to be used commonly throughout the world.”
Signatories of the accord are committed to using the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Professional Capability Framework — A Global Framework for Practice, a consensus-based tool developed to promote a high standard of capability for OHS professionals by defining their role, functions and competencies.
Framework origins
The framework is based on an analysis of the practices of various professional associations, certification bodies and credentialing organizations, and provides “generic guidance” that can be adapted and developed in more detail by each organization to take into account variations in regulations, histories and cultures when it comes to OHS practice.
So, why is the framework needed?
“The main reason is so that parents and kids come home safely at the end of the day, no matter what country you live in,” said Don Roy, president of the University of Fredericton in New Brunswick, which signed the accord.
“Unfortunately, some countries don’t have the same standards and, in some cases, have very minimal standards, so this Singapore Accord is a drive to unite countries into having a… framework of safety competencies, so that whether you’re a factory worker in Bangladesh or Toronto, you can expect the same level of safety standards.”
Individuals and groups have been working for 10 years on setting a standard framework of safety competencies the world can use, he said.
“This ties in with the multinational corporations, when people don’t want to buy a pair of Nike sneakers if they’re made in an unsafe factory in China or wherever. So this ties in with ‘Let’s standardize the competencies.’”
The establishment of a global framework for practice is an important milestone, according to Paul Andre, chair of the Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP) in Mississauga, Ont., which also signed the accord.
“This sets the stage for certification bodies to align to this global framework, providing the foundation for a profession that will be recognized globally for its ability to support improved occupational health and safety outcomes.”
The framework defines the roles, skills, knowledge and qualifications recommended for OHS professionals and practitioners, he said.
“(There was) a need to provide greater clarity around an occupational health and safety role, whether that’s at a professional level or practitioner level, by defining the differences between those two levels of practice,” said Andre.
“It’s about what capabilities do they need, what knowledge, what education, what skill sets should they have to be effective? So that was really the impetus for putting the framework together, that nothing really existed, at least at a global level. I think individual organizations or individual countries had elements of what you would consider a framework, but something that could be adopted globally didn’t exist.”
Setting the foundation
The Singapore Accord is a call to action, according to Lisa McGuire, CEO of the Manufacturing Safety Alliance of BC in Chilliwack, B.C., which also signed the agreement.
“It is affirmative action by the leading OHS professional and practitioner organizations from around the world, supported by INSHPO, to commit to the global vision of prevention through the adoption of a global framework for practice. Such a framework seeks to uphold high standards of competence of health and safety professionals and practitioners in creating healthier and safer workplaces.”
The goal of the framework is to help define OHS standards in the OHS profession, she said.
“Industry needs to be able to employ health and safety personnel who have the skills and education to support them.”
In British Columbia, for example, the association has worked with industry partners and government to identify the needs of manufacturing workplaces for OHS professionals, and the types of industry-specific skills required, she said.
“Consultations underscored the future need for systematic, standardized training of OHS professionals who not only possess a detailed understanding of the manufacturing context, but also have the technical and ‘soft’ skills required to lead the sector’s employers in the development of effective injury prevention and health and safety promotion initiatives,” said McGuire.
“Workplaces are changing in process (digital/robotics) and expectations (psychological health). To address the new needs, a basic foundation of competence is needed.”
Global workforce
Given the diversity of OHS approaches across countries, INSHPO created an overarching structure designed to encompass all of them, said Andre.
“There are differences around the globe in terms of what is required to practise in the health and safety field, so you have some countries that actually regulate what is required of an OHS professional in terms of educational requirements, experience requirements, whereas others do not, so there’s quite a range.”
For countries like Canada and the United States, this framework aligns well to current certification schemes that are in place for occupational health and safety professionals, he said.
“In developing countries, the same level of regulation that supports occupational health and safety is not necessarily there, so (the framework is) perhaps something they use as the basis for what they need to aspire to within the occupational H&S profession, particularly if it’s a fledging profession within a particular economy.”
The new framework will allow for greater mobility among occupational health and safety professionals, said Roy.
“If (for example) there’s a safety professional in India that has gone through the program and wishes to immigrate to Canada, they’ll be immediately employable because they meet the global safety standard and it’ll be very recognized, as the years pass, as having met the competencies.”
The University of Fredericton is committing to use the framework to develop and review its OHS education programs to ensure they comply, he said.
And it’s hoped many more universities will take part because education is key to delivering these competencies.
“The awareness is increasing but what’s encouraging is the governments are now getting involved and making it a priority, and people are realizing what the costs to employers, to countries, are for industrial accidents, so it is actually now becoming a priority,” said Roy.
And if you’re an employer, a recruiter or in the human resources field, said Andre, “this particular framework helps inform, essentially, what you would recruit for, what you should expect in terms of skill sets and capabilities and education around a generalist in the occupational health and safety field.”
In addition, if an HR or safety professional follows the program, she can then promote it to the C-suite in saying it’s not only good for the people but for the bottom line, said Roy.
“It really does save money, so part of the competency framework is actually communication skills, soft skills, leadership skills that allow safety managers — typically who are just on the floor doing what they need to if an accident happened — (to) go up and sell a strategic plan for the organization, so this is upping the game.”
The two other Canadian organizations signing the Singapore Accord in September were the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering and Minerva Canada Safety Management Education.
