The impact of Safety Culture on profitability
The impact of safety culture on profitability A safety culture does not operate in a vacuum. Safety incidents can effect and derail business quality, reliability, competitiveness and more importantly profitability in the following ways: 1. Loss production caused due to incidents o Time away from the job by an injured person o Time away by first aider attending injured person o Time to deal with the issues in the Health and safety Committee o Possible downtime by production process o Possible damage to product, equipment and/or plant 2. Time and costs due to repair of plant and equipment 3. Increased insurance premiums 4. Legal costs 5. Medical expenses 6. Compensation costs to injured parties In many instances, safety is seen as a “nice to have” and does not often enough reflect on the organisations audit report as a key...
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Are domestic falls your downfall?
Are domestic falls your downfall? A weight bares on the shoulders of businesses to ensure safety measures are put in place to avoid costly slips and falls in the workplace. The question is what about the change rooms and/or bathrooms? Every year, thousands of people end up in hospital emergency rooms due to shower falls and other injuries suffered in the bathroom. According to a 2011 report published by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), the figure stands at around 235,000 people per year. Although outdated, the CDC Mortality report estimated that the bathtub, shower, toilet and sink caused 234,094 nonfatal injuries in the U.S. While people have long known that the bathroom can be a hazardous area for slips and falls, the CDC report was the first to quantify how many people suffer injuries in the bathroom and...
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Eliminating hazards in the work place – South Africa vs. Global
It has come to my attention that in South Africa there is a tendency NOT to report slips and near misses in the work environment. As the statistics emphasise below, this is a very strange phenomenon as many accidents resulting from slips and falls occur in the workplace. In the United States, United Kingdom, Europe and Australia, slips and trips are treated as a high risk. This high risk ranking is a priority for attention in factories and workplaces. The environment is “controlled” by placing anti-slip treads and mats in the areas of risk in order to remove any potential hazard, thus “fixing” what they can fix and ensuring control measures are put in place. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS): There are 2 types of falls –...
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