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Digital health & safety culture

Chris Langer, scheme intelligence manager at CIRAS, the confidential incident reporting and analysis system, argues that when it comes to health and safety, organisations could be utilising digital technology to much greater effect, and at minimal cost too.

When junior doctors voice their concerns that excessive hours could impact upon patient safety, there is evidence to suggest they may indeed have a case. 

I should start by saying that I am not in any way suggesting here that digital technology provides an answer to the current industrial strife in the NHS. However, I believe most organisations could utilise such technology to provide better health outcomes for their employees. 

Thinking beyond the current situation, and the Pandora’s box of sensitivities, a coherent health and safety strategy will likely blend digital technology with adequate control measures, such as those on working hours, to avoid situations where grossly impaired alertness and decision-making affect safety. 

Naturally, digital technology will make little difference to organisations if the fundamentals aren’t correct and morale is low. Once organisations have the basics right, digital enhancements can start to gain traction. 

From spinning cotton to digital revolution 

Technology has long played a major role in health and safety matters. Two hundred years ago, the industrial revolution’s mechanisation of the spinning process to produce cloth from cotton led to the concentration of labour in cotton mills, the earliest factories. The harnessing of this powerful new technology also led to the terrible working conditions experienced by ‘pauper apprentices’, who were often below the age of 10. 

In response, The Factories Act of 1802 prohibited night work for children, and labour was limited to 12 hours a day. But even 200 years ago, health and safety thinking was about far more than better working conditions and the prevention of injury. 

The Act was also designed to educate too, decreeing that the apprentices should be instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic and Christianity. Surprising though it may seem, self-improvement was on the workplace agenda even then. 

Fast forward a couple of hundred years, and we are surrounded by digital technology that enhances our working lives in a thousand ways via computers, smartphones and tablets. Nevertheless, modern workplaces often fail to fully harness this technology, which could enhance working conditions, and therefore create a more productive, content and healthier workforce. 

We have to be proactive about this, searching out the intuitive application of digital technology that already exists, but is under-utilised in the workplace. I believe the digital, consumer-led technology that many of us already use in our private lives could massively improve our health at work too.

The digital health and safety culture mindset 

Few companies have been able to fully exploit the widely-available consumer technology for better workplace health and safety. What is needed (in addition to fundamentally sound health and safety policy) is a proactive digital health and safety culture mindset. Better applying technology to help effect behavioural change can make a substantial difference. 

The digital health and safety culture mindset: 

• Respects the importance of sleep and rest;
• Proactively uses existing consumer technology to full effect in the workplace;
• Uses the ‘quantified self’ as an effective tool to create health benefits;
• Subtly shapes employee behaviour by setting up new incentives;
• Promotes and shares the digital reporting of key health metrics amongst employees;
• Improves health outcomes for employees cost effectively; and
• Sleep your way to better performance. 

The amount and quality of sleep we get is vitally important. It underpins our mood, and has a profound effect on our work performance. A key finding in a major study on elite performers in the sports, arts and sciences by Ericsson (1993) found that the best performers slept for 8h36 on average. Compare that to the figure from the aptly named Sleep Council, who say that the average Briton gets around 6h30 sleep a night. 

In a sleep-deprived nation, our chances of Olympic-like performance in a variety of fields are being curtailed, often to the detriment of safety. Losing 90 minutes of sleep can reduce alertness by one-third. Consider the potential consequences for doctors, pilots, drivers, and construction workers, who all manage the safety and lives of others on a daily basis. 

Provided reasonable working hours and rest periods are adhered to, sleep is an area we can regain some control over. It is also a very measurable feature of our lives – sleep analytics are available through popular smartphone apps for just this purpose. 

The age of the ‘quantified’ self 

Employers could help take the fight to workplace inactivity, encouraging more of the desired behaviours at work. All our daily activities in and around the office make a difference, but are often overlooked because we don’t mentally account for them. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), inactivity is the fourth biggest killer of adults. And the UK spends nearly £47bn a year on obesity, more than on armed violence, war and terrorism, according to a 2014 report by McKinsey and Company. 

In fact, people who sit the longest may double their risk of diabetes or heart disease, as compared to those who sit the least. For those who sit for prolonged periods as an integral part of their jobs, such as drivers, it can be doubly difficult to achieve a satisfactory level of fitness. 

Perhaps no-one quite anticipated how much our lives could be reduced to a set of numbers by technology. Smartphones and activity trackers can measure all manner of things: steps taken, floors climbed, kilometres walked, time spent sitting down, heart rate and calories burned to name a few of the most common ones. You’d be forgiven for thinking the quantified self is the whole self, and nothing but the self. It’s not, of course, but the ability to track our every move enables effective goal-setting and progress tracking. 

Electronic notifications and alerts can sometimes be a rude interruption in our working lives. However, when we are discreetly reminded to stretch our legs after a period of staring at our screens, the technology has our best interests at heart. We can take a quick break and return to work feeling refreshed. Productivity goes up, as does the generation of creative ideas. Activity trackers linking to smartphone apps are available for as little as £15 with no subscription required. Employers are often happy to subsidise gym memberships, but could this be a more effective, lower cost alternative? 

Non-attendance at the gym after the initial enthusiasm wears off often becomes a source of guilt. We might be better off starting our exercise routines from the office: climbing the stairs, taking a brisk walk at lunchtime in a ‘green gym’, and walking to the station instead of taking the bus. It can be more motivational, too, to think in terms of micro-activities rather than workouts. 

Every micro-activity makes a contribution, and they all add up to a real health outcome. Largely unacknowledged micro-activities such as cleaning your desk, taking a trip to the printer, or a walk to see a colleague, quickly add up to a significant calorie burning gain. 

Corporate targets for calories? 

It is extremely rare for there to be corporate targets for calories burned in the course of a working day. But work is often where a genuinely competitive team spirit thrives. Calorie burning comparisons across individuals, teams and departments could usher in a healthier workplace, and would likely have a positive, knock-on effect on business performance too. 

The technology is there, the data is there, but it is not being leveraged, or reported on, for improved employee health. Blue collar workers, who are typically more active than office workers, might enjoy their currently under-recognised status as high calorie burners. This thinking is backed up by the science too. 

In a fascinating study by researchers at Harvard University, a group of housekeepers were informed how many calories they were burning during each day over a period of four weeks. By simply telling them the value of their daily activity, they were actually able to lower their body fat, blood pressure and waist-to-hip ratio (as compared to a control group who were not given any information at all). It might seem unbelievable, but this placebo-style effect actually creates measurable, real-world health gains. 

Cultural change 

There is a compelling case for the more effective implementation of digital technology, alongside behavioural workplace tweaks, to effect cultural change. It is not hyperbole to suggest the health of the nation depends on it. The obesity crisis, and the ongoing multi-billion pound cost to the NHS, could be tackled, at least in part, by instilling the digital health and culture mindset. We will all get healthier in the right environment, one calorie at a time. 

About CIRAS 

CIRAS is a confidential incident reporting and analysis system which has been operating since 1996. 

It offers a corporate safety net that ensures safety, health or other concerns are captured where they otherwise might be lost, or remain unaddressed. With CIRAS’s help, these concerns are investigated to a satisfactory conclusion. 

CIRAS offers an alternative, truly independent, confidential reporting line to a range of transport modes and infrastructure organisations. Staff can call knowing their identity will never be shared.  The aim is to exploit the opportunity to learn from every report received. Through an engagement programme, newsletters and website, the lessons learned and the actions taken are shared.

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