National Safety Council Emphasizes Role of Supervisors in Fatigue Management

At Fatigue Science, we often find ourselves inspired by the diligent work conducted by other organizations in the field of worker safety and well-being. In particular, we are continuously impressed by the National Safety Council (NSC), an organization that shares our commitment to promoting a culture of safety within the workplace.

In a recent initiative, the NSC has introduced an Impairment Recognition and Response Training program for supervisors, specifically tailored to address workplace impairment. The cause of this impairment can range from substance usage to mental and physical stressors like fatigue, the latter of which lies at the heart of our work here at Fatigue Science.

The importance of this initiative is significant. In their latest research published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, the NSC highlights the crucial role that properly trained supervisors play in enhancing workplace safety and mitigating risks. NSC researchers found that properly training supervisors measurably enables them to recognize and respond more effectively to various forms of impairment, improving workers’ safety behavior and limiting potential costs. 

This is a theme that resonates closely with the recognition we received from the NSC in late 2022. Fatigue Science was honored with the NSC’s prestigious Green Cross Safety Innovation Award. The award recognized the work of our team in pioneering the field of “predictive fatigue management”, which reduces risk and increases productivity before the start of every shift. By leveraging Machine Learning and optional wearable technology, our platform Readi facilitates supervisors’ decisions by providing daily fatigue risk predictions for each worker, effectively enabling task assignment based on fatigue risk levels. We were also honored to present new data from this work at a Technical Session of NSC’s Spring Safety Conference on May 18, 2023.

In this way, our work echoes the very mission of the NSC’s award – promoting innovative safety practices and contributing to creating safer workplaces. 

While we feel humbled by the recognition, our focus remains on advancing safety and productivity in heavy industries and beyond. Similarly, the NSC’s new training initiative paves the way in creating safer workplaces, emphasizing the importance of active impairment management. We commend their effort, as it mirrors our commitment to enhancing worker safety through predictive fatigue management.

This shared dedication to worker safety and productivity is why we value the NSC’s work so highly. By acknowledging and addressing the serious repercussions of workplace fatigue, we are collectively moving towards safer and healthier working environments. And as we continue our own efforts in the fight against occupational fatigue, we’ll continue to look to the NSC as an invaluable source of inspiration and leadership in this field. 

We encourage everyone to delve deeper into the NSC’s Impairment Recognition and Response Training initiative and join us in advocating for enhanced safety measures within our workplaces. Together, we can make a difference in promoting a healthier, safer, and more productive mine sites, fleets, and industrial work sites.