Roughly 1 out of 7 Americans do not feel safe at work, according to a 2019 study done by SHRM—the Society for Human Resource Management. The same study concluded that nearly one-third of American employees are currently unsure or don’t know what to do if they witness or are involved in a workplace violence incident. Violence prevention and safety training programs can help mitigate these incidents but with how spontaneous they can be, nothing can ever be completely prevented.
The Importance of Safety Innovation
Workplace violence can include incidents such as physical assaults, harassment, intimidation, theft, and shootings. But, other workplace emergencies can include employee heart attacks, equipment accidents, and falls. Safety innovation is a rapidly growing industry and can offer another way to help mitigate these workplace incidents. Workplaces can present many different kinds of hazards on a daily basis so coming up with innovations in the safety industry can bring a strong layer of protection and responsiveness to these workplaces.
Though technology itself cannot offer a complete solution to workplace safety, technological innovations are essential in creating a significant impact in the protection of facilities, reducing the severity of emergencies, and even shortening reaction times for first responders.
In recent years, we have seen the demand of wearables such as the Apple Watch, Fitbit, and others grow in consumer popularity, and their impact is also edging into the safety industry. One example of a company specializing in employee safety is Kwema.
Kwema mitigates the safety risks that employees face by providing wearables that activate an emergency protocol. Our technology is designed to avoid adoption hurdles and training costs by being placed in something employees already wear.
Watch how Kwema is disrupting workplace safety