In the not-so-distant past, people used to toil every day in dangerous environments. Thankfully, with time, employers started to take notice that a happier employee equals a more productive employee. Somehow we started with basic safety regulations and ended up with ping-pong tables littering the offices. Truly a surprising climax.
Still, proper safety regulations have more benefits than just a decreased rate of mortality among employees. Let’s begin!
Money
Injuries in the workplace cost money. Workers’ compensation premiums, higher insurance rates, but also the time lost when the worker is not working. It doesn’t end there; if it’s a more severe injury, someone will have to replace them. Thus, someone else will have to put effort into training a new person.
The course by Swinburne Professional University can help you prepare an adequate return to work program. It will help retain the skills of the workers. It is especially crucial if they won’t be able to come back to work for a considerable amount of time. Implementing such a program shows your employees that you care about them, even if they are not up to their normal levels of productivity. It will also reduce the demands placed on a person, once the recovery process is completed.
Stress
Not having to stress about your safety is a significant factor when it comes to productivity. If you are in a constant state of worrying, your brain is unable to focus on tasks that require you to consider the distant future. All that exists for your mind is here and now. Your cognitive performance deteriorates, and abstract thinking is next to impossible.
If your goal is to maximize the productivity of your employees, making sure that their work environment is safe should be your top priority. Being stressed for a long time causes irreversible changes in your brain. It is an obligation of any company to ensure that its workers have appropriate work conditions.
Health
Safety hazards can threaten the health of the employees, but the cause of their injuries doesn’t have to be dramatic to be dangerous. Uncomfortable desks, non-adjustable chairs, air filled with dust may not evoke similar emotions as a falling crate full of nails. In the long run, though, the effects are comparable.
Staying healthy is crucial to employees. It doesn’t matter how much you pay them, or whether in the kitchen they can find fruits straight from the heart of the Amazon. If working for you means that in ten years they’ll become wrecks, then they will surely decide to work someplace else.
Loyalty
If you want to keep the employee retention rate high, then their comfort is critical. They’ll spend almost half of their waking hours working in the environment for which you are responsible. Even if you are not big on values such as “loyalty”, then you may consider this issue solely from an economic perspective. It is much easier to prevent your employees from leaving in the first place than to deal with the consequences of their departure.
It doesn’t mean that to stop employees from leaving your company, you’ll have to turn one of the office rooms into a gym with machines made of gold. Proper lighting, chairs that are not falling apart, a pull-up bar, or a plant or two will do wonders. It’s not about showing your employees that you are wealthy, but rather that you have compassion and care about their-being.
Reputation
Proper workplace safety will improve the satisfaction of your employees, but it will also affect the way your company is viewed from the outside. Imagine dealing with a company that mistreats its employees and regularly experiences some major accidents that result in a loss of life. In business, your reputation for being a reliable partner is of utmost importance if you are making deals worth millions. It doesn’t matter if you have developed a cutting-edge product if the injury rate in your company is similar to that of a Himalayan expedition. Other companies may be tempted to do business with your company, but they’ll be well aware of the potential backlash from their customers. It is difficult to achieve success alone, so even from a purely pragmatic standpoint, it is better to invest in your workers’ safety.
The only viable option
The 19th century is long gone; injuries cannot be accepted as an inherent part of the job. The efforts must be put into making sure that the work environment is as comfortable and non-threatening for the employees as possible. Their well-being has an impact on their productivity, but also their job satisfaction. That’s why workplace safety is non-negotiable.
