Author: Peter Tayar-Watson, Global QSHEW Director

Did you know that this week marked the World Day for Safety and Health at Work?

Since its launch in 2003 by the International Labour Organization (ILO), this global initiative has promoted the fundamental right to safe, healthy, and decent working conditions for all. But this day is more than just a calendar milestone - it’s a powerful reminder of the work still to be done.

Why health and safety matters

Every single day, an estimated 6,300 people die as a result of occupational accidents or work-related diseases. That’s more than 2.3 million preventable deaths each year, with 395 million workplace accidents occurring annually. The cost of this is staggering - both in human lives and financially, with an estimated 4% of global GDP lost each year due to poor occupational health and safety.

Despite the scale of the issue, health and safety doesn’t always get the attention it deserves. It’s sometimes seen as a blocker - something that stops work from happening. But that mindset misses the point. Health and safety is not about what we can’t do, but about how we can do it safely.

Making safety smarter, not harder

Let’s be honest: some aspects of health and safety can feel repetitive or routine - like writing risk assessments for everyday tasks. But that doesn’t mean they’re not important. These practices are legally required, and more importantly, they save lives.

And now, they’re getting smarter. At Macro, we’re embracing technology to reduce risk and increase capacity. We're proud to be using AI tools from Intuety to help review supplier health and safety risk assessments for our facilities services. This approach not only improves efficiency, but helps our teams and suppliers focus on what matters most - doing the job safely.

Our approach is working: we've had no RIDDOR-reportable injuries among staff and direct contractors across 40 countries for the past 10 months. A big part of this success is thanks to a 20% increase in near-miss reporting - a reflection of our commitment to building a proactive safety culture. We’re shifting the focus from reacting to incidents to tracking positive actions vs. negative events, using this as a new KPI to drive continual improvement.

We’re also looking ahead. Climate change brings emerging risks to the workplace, from extreme heat to air quality. This week, our Health and Safety team delivered a client seminar on the potential impacts of climate change on occupational health.

Learning, sharing, improving

Safety is a journey, not a destination. At Macro, we’re driving continual improvement by holding lessons learned sessions with our FM teams around the world. These calls review not only serious incidents and near-misses, but also best practices and examples of great work done safely.

We believe in sharing knowledge, not keeping it to ourselves. Because safety is everyone’s responsibility and we’re stronger when we learn from each other aligning with our one of our core values; Drive for better.

Join the conversation

We're committed to building safer workplaces for our people, contractors, and clients. If you're on a similar journey, we’d love to hear from you. How are you using technology, data, or collaboration to improve safety where you work?

Let’s make sure the health and safety conversation is louder, smarter, and more inclusive. Because safe work is smart work.