Jennifer McNelly became the chief executive officer of the American Society of Safety Professionals, which underwent a rebranding earlier this year, in August. She spoke to Business Insurance Deputy Editor Gloria Gonzalez about why the rebranding effort was necessary, her priorities as she settles into her new position, and the importance of data and technology for workplace safety. Edited excerpts follow.

Q: What are some of the top priorities for you as you start to dig into your position?

A: I think one of my key priorities really anchors on what I’d call the amplification of the importance of safety. Right now, my perspective would be that we’re very good technically at delivering value to our members in building their capabilities, but what we need to help them do is expand their sphere of influence. One of the interactions I had with the board (of directors of ASSP) centered on raising the visibility of the safety profession to the C-suite. And I think it’s really important that we do that and have important data as to how good safety practice makes companies more profitable. But what I know to be the case for my manufacturing experience is that decisions happen on the front lines, and our biggest point of influence is the individuals doing the job every day. So how do we engage safety across an entire enterprise up and down channels? That to me is a really big, important strategic priority for the society.

Q: What do you see as the biggest opportunities for your members as they move forward in their efforts and their positions?

A: We have constant innovation. We have innovation in products, we have innovation in process, and today’s safety professional really needs to focus on today’s work environment while preparing for tomorrow’s. I think it’s important for us to help our safety professionals understand the importance of what real-time data and analytics will do, what’s changing in the world of work. Manage for today, lead for tomorrow.

Q: What do you think are the biggest risks or challenges faced by your members?

A: Well, I’m going to say this is not just our members. This is the practice of business. We need to not blame the individual (for workplace injuries). We need to understand the breakdown in the system. We have human error because we are human, and that will always be the case. How do we ensure that we have effective systems in place to mitigate tragedies that can happen? And that I think is a bit of a paradigm shift. That’s a different lens and something I think we the society need to be leading on.

Q: What do you see as the role and the relationship between your members of safety professionals and the employees, the employers, the regulators, the different stakeholders?

A: I think it’s a shared social compact. Nobody’s going to argue against the mission to send people home at the end of the day in any work environment. I think it’s that shared social compact that’s not just the regulatory environment. It’s not just the business environment. It is the work environment. It is being led by the safety professional, but it engages the stakeholders from every individual that walks in the door every single day down to how you read, evaluate or think about risk management by building better systems.

Q: The organization went through rebranding earlier this year. I know this was before your time, but what’s your sense of what that means in terms of the direction of the organization, now becoming a society of safety professionals? (Editor’s note: The organization was previously known as the American Society of Safety Engineers until June. 1)

A: I think the branding was very appropriate with respect to the interaction that I’ve had with members to date. Not all of them are engineers I think the term engineering underrepresented the society as a whole.

Q: What do you see as the potential for data and technology in this sector?

A: I think it’s huge. I think that is one of the single most important factors in the changing world of work, especially if you’re taking a systems approach. Let’s just take the world of what cyber security now means in a risk assessment environment for a health and safety practitioner. It is a safety issue that people are still trying to understand. That presents some interesting opportunities for constant development, constant learning, constant best practice sharing.