The Noggin Blog

We’ve all been following major shifts in occupational health and safety. And perhaps, no one recent change has been bigger than the introduction of ISO 45001. The new ISO standard supplants OHSAS 18001 to give organizations of any size and in any market a systematic, integrated way to manage work safety risk.

Year after year, the likelihood of a business-destroying critical event only seems to increase. Yet somehow, business continuity planning–the collection of resources, actions, procedures, and information, designed to prepare organizations to maintain essential functions in the event of a disaster or other major disruption–hasn’t made it to the top rung of C-suite priorities. 

Physical security incidents cause staggering levels of material damage and cost organizations big bucks. In the construction industry, for example, businesses lose between $300 million and $1 billion every year due to the theft of equipment and other high-value materials, according to data from the U.S. National Insurance Crime Bureau. 

Managing major events is difficult – it’s not for nothing that Olympic host cities have over five years to prepare for the next Games (incidentally, Los Angeles will have eleven to prepare for the 2028 Summer Olympics). For one, the level of risk they create is enormous, and not just security risk. 

The LINX Group is a pretty big deal in the logistics infrastructure and solutions space. How couldn’t it be? Built on more than a century’s worth of ports and logistics experience, the company brings together the skills and expertise of four market-leading operations. As a result, it boasts customers across a wide array of industries.

Business continuity management (BCM) has been around for some time now, roughly since the 1970s, according to most accounts. Back then, the field was a mere offshoot of crisis management. But now its scope has narrowed substantially to a holistic management process for identifying potential threats to an organization and the operational impacts those threats pose.

In March 2018, the Australian Parliament passed the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act. As you probably know, the Act majorly ramps up state scrutiny of so-called critical infrastructure assets (ports, as well as electricity, gas, and water entities), by attempting to improve cooperation and collaboration between government bodies and the owners and operators of those assets. To do so, the Act compels asset operators and owners to relay detailed operational information (as well as relevant updates) to a government authority.

Critical events have become increasingly disruptive facts of corporate life. A recent Forrester report documented that all companies experienced a critical event in the last two years. In fact, many dealt with multiple incidents, the average being more than four discrete critical events in a two-year period.

In the last decade, Australia and New Zealand launched broad-based reforms to retool their occupational health and safety systems. Australia implemented a rigorous harmonisation regime: its commonwealth Model Work Health and Safety Act now forms the basis of the majority of state WHS laws. New Zealand, then, used Australia’s Model Act as the basis for its regulations.

Nowadays, most jurisdictions impose a strict duty of care obligation on employers. In other words, employers must provide a baseline level of care for their employees, i.e. ensure security and safety. That requirement, however, doesn’t just apply to employees working within the four walls of the traditional office; it also extends to lone workers.