Why is Workplace Safety Important? Key Benefits Explained
Why is workplace safety important? The best workplace is a safe one and business owners who value their employees put a lot of stock in keeping them safe. It's crucial for legal compliance, but it's also a moral obligation to honour the duty of care they owe their employees. Workplace safety is key to maintaining efficiency, increasing productivity, and motivating a happy, healthy workforce. By instituting strict health and safety regulations, you reduce instances of illness, injury, absenteeism, and the costs related to injuries, and improve employee morale.
Employee Safety
Employers have a corporate responsibility, ethically and morally, to protect their employees and put controls in place to ensure accident prevention. By taking steps to ensure safety on the job, employers prevent illnesses, avoid workplace injuries, and reduce the risk of workplace fatalities.
It also has a positive impact on employee morale because when they feel like their employer cares about them enough to put safety regulations in place, they tend to be more motivated to perform well and are satisfied with their position. Workplace safety encourages a culture of safety, reduces stress, and fosters trust between employees and managers. If you show them they're valued, they will repay you in productivity.
Wearing protective equipment such as vests, hard hats or respiratory protection may seem like a costly up front expense will not only reduce costs around injuries now that there are fewer of them, but it will also positively influence your labour turnover rates. With a better reputation, you'll retain your employees and avoid the costs of recruitment and training.
Legal Compliance
A risk assessment is part of the safety management system and is designed for hazard identification so employers can put controls in place to mitigate the risk of those hazards. These are more than paper exercises; risk assessments are part of the paper trail businesses rely on in court to defend themselves against legal action. Ultimately, if they were used as a tick-box exercise without follow-through, the business risks serious fines, reputational damage, and legal action.
Businesses must identify risks, put controls in place to mitigate those risks, communicate with the team, and carry out regular internal inspections to ensure compliance with those safety standards. You enjoy the legal protection of compliance, but more importantly, you reduce the risk of injuries on the job.
Increase Productivity and Improve Efficiency
A safe workplace goes beyond high-visibility vests and hard hats, though they do play a crucial role in many work environments. By creating a safety culture in your workplace, you're ensuring that every employee feels valued, secure, and focused on the job, which reduces the likelihood of accidents and the downtime those accidents cause. By keeping everyone focused and working, you're building a more efficient team.
Your employees are more likely to feel motivated and engaged in the job they do when they feel safe in their working environment. By creating a safe environment, you're nurturing a sense of trust between the employees, management team, and ownership, which encourages higher engagement.
Providing employees with effective safety training ensures a confident workforce, which makes them more efficient and less likely to make errors that could lead to costly mistakes on the job. This training includes safety protocols and emergency procedures, but it's also about training them to use equipment safely.
Reduce Costs
Accidents are costly. There are the direct costs of injuries and accidents on the job, including compensation if applicable, medical expenses, and rising insurance premiums. There are also indirect costs to consider, such as damaged equipment, lost productivity, and potential legal fees — especially if the matter escalates and involves a lawyer or ends up in court. Additionally, you may face fines if there are issues with your equipment or operations.
Research shows that investing in mental well-being measures in the workplace has an ROI of $2.30 for every dollar you invest. That research can't quantify the reputational damage that a high number of accidents can cause, but the direct and indirect costs of a lack of safety add up.
Enhance Company Reputation
A strong record in safety isn't just a useful tool to retain the talent you have trained in-house. It's also an effective tool for recruitment when you're trying to lure new talent into the business. Many recruits are interested in learning about the occupational health team and what occupational safety measures are in place to prevent workplace injuries.
Beyond the recruitment piece, enhancing your company reputation through a strong safety record is also good for your public image and can buoy stakeholder confidence, which gives you a competitive advantage in your industry.
Foster a Culture of Safety
Risk management is the key to building a strong culture of safety in every workplace and putting safety measures in place goes beyond cost reduction matters. It's your obligation as an employer and it shows your commitment to leadership and ensures employee involvement when you set strong rules and train your employees well. Safety isn't a one-time event; it requires constant communication, effective training, and continuous improvement from every party.
Employers who care about employee well-being encourage a strong safety culture and encourage employees to take additional safety training to learn how best to keep themselves and their colleagues safe on the job.
Final Thoughts
Workplace safety is essential, and key to increasing productivity in the workplace, maintaining efficiency, motivating employees, and making everyone in the building safer. The benefits of a strong safety culture in the workplace is as beneficial to the employer as it is to employees, not just in cost savings, but in morale, efficiency, and productivity.