Operational heat readiness: Why organisations need a system-level approach to safeguard workers in a warming world

Operational heat readiness: Why organisations need a system-level approach to safeguard workers in a warming world

As extreme heat increasingly impacts productivity and worker safety, organisations must adopt a comprehensive, system-level approach to effectively manage heat risk, says Luana Main, Associate Professor at Deakin University’s School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences. Globally, extreme heat has shifted from a seasonal inconvenience to a structural risk (1) affecting productivity, safety, and workforce sustainability. (2) Recent discussions have highlighted how factors such as age, (3) sex, (4) and cumulative exposure (5) can influence individual vulnerability. These factors matter, but they are only part of the picture. In practice, protecting workers also depends heavily on organisational capability: the systems and decision- making processes that determine how heat risk is managed under real-world conditions. (6)