ISO 45003
15 MINS
WORDS PETER CRUSH
Readjusting the
lens The forthcoming ISO 45003 standard focuses on the mental health in ‘health and safety’ and offers timely guidance on how to protect the psychosocial wellbeing of staff.
L
ess than a year of many people working from home – the perk consistently found to be what employees crave most – staff are now clamouring to return to the office. Places once pilloried for contributing to poor mental health are now seen as havens for human interaction. Still, it’s simplistic suddenly to label offices as good, and home environments as bad. After all, the latest UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics record that half of all workrelated ill health cases during 2019-20 were caused by stress, depression and anxiety. But what is being exposed is just how the function of work, regardless of where it’s being done, is increasingly being viewed through a mental health lens, with a recognition that the way it is organised needs looking at again.
IOSH MAGAZINE 63
63-65 ISO_Jan-Feb 2021_IOSH 63
22/12/2020 11:48
