Occupational hazards - February 2025

AS SAFETY and health professionals, we spend our time looking after others. It’s our role to ensure risks to the safety, health and wellbeing of workers are managed robustly. Over recent years, there has of course been an increasing focus on the wellbeing of workers. This is a crucial area for businesses – if they manage the risks to employee wellbeing successfully, they can reap the benefits.

But what about ourselves as professionals? Do we ever pause and reflect on how we are? If we are struggling, are we able to seek support, for example from fellow professionals? If not, why not?

I believe that to be able to carry out our roles effectively, we must look after ourselves. That’s the starting point. Only then can we support the businesses we work with to the best of our ability.

I have experienced both burnout and very poor mental health during my career. During these times, I felt I was unable to reach out to people because I was always the one that others reached out to. This shouldn’t be the case. We should all be able to seek support when we need it. 

Building excellence within our profession, one of the missions of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), cannot be done without ensuring that we have the resilience, and the support and network around us when we need it. 

That is why wellbeing for OSH professionals is one of the key themes of my year as president of IOSH. 

I’m happy to talk about my experience of burnout and mental health struggles because I believe there is great value in sharing stories. I believe that the more we connect to each other through the stories we tell, the closer we become and the more genuine and authentic we are. It also helps us develop better relationships and exert more influence.

Other stories which have influenced my career include, sadly, some very serious workplace accidents that I’ve had to respond to.

As an OSH professional, the worst two incidents I’ve been involved with were falls from height. One resulted in a colleague breaking his back in four places. I remember walking into the hospital, hearing him screaming in pain from the other side of the ward, and seeing him in his hospital bed, surrounded by his family, and them looking to me for answers as to why this had happened to their child. 

The other, sadly, was a fatality. The trauma of picking up the pieces of a business after the tragic loss of a colleague is something I still carry with me.

Sadly, these incidents aren’t uncommon. In 2023-24, 50 people died falling from height at work, which is around one a week. And that’s just in the UK; I dread to think how many people die falling from height at work around the world. 

This is the reason why working at height is another of my key themes. 

But, no matter what work people do, they should all be protected – no one should have their life or livelihood put at risk by work. So, it’s crucial that OSH professionals continue to work closely with business, to ensure that protecting workers is at the very heart of what they do. 

So, let’s share our stories and consider how we support each other. By doing this, we can continue to spread the message of the value of OSH and prevent more people from suffering because of a workplace accident or work-related ill health. 

Kelly Nicoll is president of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. For more information, visit www.iosh.com