The law protects the interests of every employee with the bid to provide a conducive and safe working environment. The sole reason why people toll and work hard is to help them fend for their families and meet all financial obligations.
It would be pointless waking up early in the morning to go and put your life on the line for some compensation. Workplace health and safety should be a priority for most employers since it has a direct effect on your business performance.
Let us take a look at some of the reasons why workplace health and safety is crucial in any business set up.
1. Prevent Illness and Injury
The initial objective and goal of coming up with workplace health and safety measures are to drastically reduce the number of accident victims in the place of work. It also aims at giving the employees the necessary tips and knowledge to help them avoid potential hazards that would pose a threat to their wellbeing.
Business owners should organize training sessions that aim at educating the employees on some effective ways, procedures, and practices of staying safe at all times. The sessions also equip your team with the proper hygiene practices that should help them put all forms of illnesses at bay.
It is also an advantage for a business to retain some of the loyal workers who put immense effort to steer your business to success.
2. Reduces Health and Safety Hazards
Its true most working places have potential hazards that are life-threatening to the workers. In the manufacturing industry, your workers might come to terms with the use of risky machines, chemicals, and equipment.
It is up to the management to ensure that they get the necessary training to help them cope with the perils at work. Health hazards may extend to the consumption of contaminated food products to inadequate gearing.
There are industries known to deal with potentially dangerous chemicals and gases that may take a toll on the health of your team.
There is always a risk involved in the storage, handling, and maintenance procedures and its wise to protect the interests of the workers. Ensure your team adheres to the material handling guidelines to reduce the number of fatalities and victims of hazardous exposure to toxic materials.
3. Minimizing Legal Liabilities
An organisation that is well armed and conversant with a health and safety management system has a huge chance of avoiding lawsuits from victim employees. A company that has its focus and need to take care of their employees will make sure they have their best interest at heart.
The system tunes business owners to consider the safety and health of its workers with the bid to maintain and establish a cordial relationship with the regulatory bodies.
4. Economic Effect
An effective health and safety management system allow the business owner to implement favourable preventative measures and compensation guidelines.
Legal liabilities could easily put a business on its knees with the compensation and penalties imposed in case a worker gets injured in the line of duty.
The health and safety measures help reduce the number of accidents in the workplace which reduces the need to spend more on solving disputes and paying hefty bills and medical expenses.
5. Fewer Injuries Increase Productivity
A win for the workers is always a win for the management. Itis always bad for a company to lose the services of some of the most productive individuals.
It may mean the loss of additional revenue or sales since most trust employees are valuable assets for the company. A worker needs perfect health and conditioner for productivity to be achieved. Coming up with an effective health and safety management system will help reduce the injury cases by a big margin.
It would also enhance the productivity of the employees since they have the certainty that they are safety and health concerns are well handled.
For David Rowland, Head of Marketing at Engage EHS, health and safety is the responsibility of everyone in an organisation. This may seem tough, but the payoffs are huge: increased productivity of workers, increased bottom line, and greater consumer confidence.
Creating an ideal working condition in the workplace helps develop a positive corporate culture. It should be among the natural rule of law to mind about the wellbeing of your counterpart.
Every employer might agree that it’s much better to prevent most of the avoidable mishaps and accidents in the places of work.