Digitalization saves lives

What is the most precious asset of every company – no matter what vertical it is active in? Of course, it’s their employees. What sounds like an empty platitude that could be voiced by every other „Chief Happiness Officer“, is a very serious matter for many companies all over the world.

Let’s look at some plain figures: Every year more than 2.78 million people die because of occupational accidents or work-related disease according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Additionally, there are some 374 million non-fatal work-related injuries each year, resulting in more than 4 days of absences from work. The human cost of this daily adversity is vast, and the economic burden of poor occupational safety and health practices is estimated at 3.94 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product each year.

One of the verticals where employees are especially in danger of (fatal) accidents is the mining industry. Due to the nature of mineral extraction – literally drilling into the surface of the earth and sending humans into cavernous and potentially toxic spaces with heavy machinery and equipment – mining is an extremely dangerous job. With a death toll that reflects this. Even though the mining industry employs „only“ 1% of the global labour force, 8 % of all fatal occupational fatal accidents occur in the mining sector.

If we leave all ethical aspects aside for once, a German study concludes that the value of a statistical life for employees subject to social security contributions is 1.65 million euros. Of course, this financial aspect is only one of many why occupational health and safety are supposed to be one of the top priorities of every company. In the meantime, digitalization has become one of the core elements when talking about the improvement of worker’s safety.

Especially in the mining business digitalization is key. Huge working areas with many solo-workers make communication and location in case of an accident – when time matters most – difficult. This is where Asset or in this case People tracking comes into play as a means of security and safety. Additionally, to automatically tracking working times the […]