An Overview of Situational Awareness

When working in a hazardous plant or work environment, you often hear that you need to be aware of your surroundings or to be risk-averse. But what does this mean and how does one accomplish situational awareness? According to OSHA, situational awareness is “knowing what is going on all around you by having the ability to identify, process, comprehend, and respond to critical elements of information regarding the environment in which you are located.” Let’s break that down.

Critical Elements of Information

If we focus all of our attention on just one or two items in a room, we lose alertness, as there are always more than two elements in any given situation. In environments like mills, mines, or plants, there are many things happening at once. It is important to identify all of them or risk the safety of yourself or others. Once you have identified all of the given elements of potential risk, you need to process the information – sometimes quickly. You need to quickly process whether the information you are identifying is safe or unsafe.

Processing information is not enough, however, as you need to then comprehend or understand the information so that you can make a decision. Comprehension involves processing all of the information you have identified, filtering out the irrelevant information, focusing on the important factors, and determining whether or not an accident can occur.

Once you have identified, processed, and comprehended the information around you, you need to take action or respond. This involves reacting to something dangerous happening and maintaining safety.

How Do You Accomplish Situational Awareness?

We can put these “critical element” guidelines into effect in order to ensure safety, but we cannot always be 100% aware of our surroundings, as we are accustomed to making mistakes and susceptible to distraction. So what can you do to always ensure situational awareness? To accomplish this, you need a solution that focuses on all of the critical elements of information around you.

Sensear’s revolutionary SENS^® (Speech Enhancement, Noise Suppression) Technology enables 360° situational awareness, retains original sound characteristics, and reduces the risk of accidents. It accomplishes this by isolating and enhancing speech while reducing harmful background noise, so users can hear speech and stay protected while remaining aware of their surroundings in high-noise environments. SENS^® determines the nature, distance, and directionality of all sounds including speech, machinery/vehicles, and alarms.

So, instead of worrying about the safety of your employees, choose the best technology for total communication, hearing protection, and situational awareness – choose SENS^® Technology.

For more information on Sensear’s SENS^® Technology or smart headsets, contact one of our high-noise communication specialists today.