The Coordinator of the International Occupational Safety and Health, (IOSH), Nigeria Network, Kayode Fowode, has commended the effort of members for the rapid growth and the quality of the capacity building trainings hosted by the network.
He gave this commendation at the July monthly meeting of the group which held recently at the corporate head office of Hybrid Group in Ikeja.
According to the IOSH coordinator, he said people have commended that the quality of their speakers has greatly improved and in other to maximize time in the meetings there was a general suggestion on having one speaker in the monthly meetings.
Fowode said their might be need to also move the meeting to a bigger facility due to increased attendance.
During the meeting, there were two presentations, one of which was on Workplace Health Surveillance delivered by Dr. Oluwakolade Abayomi, the CEO of Wellane Health Ltd.
In his presentation he noted that health surveillance is one aspect industries lack in Nigeria. He said that when working in an organization, health should always be on check as most organization have not embraced health surveillance as a culture.
He said, “We must know the health status of our workers. If we don’t, we may end up exposing our workers to dangerous chemicals that will damage their kidneys and probably have lungs cancer.
We are here today to speak with OSH people to make them know how things should be done. These effort is collaborative in nature And if HSE in organizations are doing their health assessment and risk control and workers are falling sick, and nobody is treating them they can’t work. Every body has a part to play in health surveillance system.” He concluded.
In the second presentation, another industry expert, Monica Nwosu, stated that OSH professionals must be Dynamic in their Approach to duties.
The Managing Director of Fresh
Fountain consulting Ltd, Mrs. Monica Nwosu, called on safety heads across organizations to employ dynamism in their approach to gaining the needed recognition by management in their various places of employment.
Nwosu made this assertion when she spoke on Strategies for making the OHS Professionals effective in Organisation.
According to her, she said that OSH professionals finds it difficult to be change agents and most of the time complaints are that leadership at the Management level are not committed and supportive to OSH professional. She said,
“There are some people within an organization that leaders cannot do anything without. Such people are called influencers or change agent. They are the ones leaders look up to in other to make any change. It is for us as OSH professionals to begin to think beyond technical skills, and begin to understand organizational designs, leadership styles, and who we are dealing with. You can’t make a change if you don’t understand the things that can influence your boss.”
The fresh fountain boss dwelt on the need for OSH professional to take time to understand what plan drives their organization, the kind of direction, strategy and leadership focus. She also said they must understand the structure of their organization, the reporting line and the decision making process that obtains among others.
She said all of these calls for dynamism and persistence to gain the needed workplace visibility. She admonished those in attendance to go back and re-strategize and do the needful to get the desired result.
