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 line item. However, changing safety to a driver of profitability makes budgeting a key priority.
Below are a few keys points to consider for when developing your budget forecast:
Ensuring office and factory areas are zoned for safety i.e. enhance the safety of Communal areas, kitchens, bathrooms and showers
Slips and falls are not likely to be reported or recorded by management. A shower and change room is a high risk area for slips that can turn into a serious injury. Fat, oil spills, washing liquid and sanitising can cause potential harmful slip areas in your kitchen and canteen. Traffic Calming Bumps are a well-designed and easily installed to slow down office and factory traffic (trucks and hysters) to acceptable safety levels and prove your identification of hazards in the workplace.
Ensure safety is number one in the field
Ask the question, are you prepared and can you prove that safety systems are in place for unfortunate earth fault leakage? An Electric Voltage mat is specifically designed to improve safety for your workers and shows legal compliance for your Health and Safety program. Read more (Include hyperlink to Electric Voltage Mats) on the Supersafe Systems website on the process of receiving a certified document that guarantees 220000volts insulation protection for your workers in Substations and Motor Control Centers.
Consider Social Responsibility and Ergonomics
Improve productivity, product quality and profitability while reducing workplace-related injuries through the installation of Anti-Fatigue Mats. Although not considered a safety system, Anti-Fatigue Mats are designed to elicit comfort for workers who are standing on manufacturing lines. Improve your safety program by installing a change-over system with your organisations safety signage. Periodic change-overs create interest and keep safety precautions top of mind.
Purchasing power is only as strong as your accepted budget. Think ahead and avoid costly slips and falls.