If you have employees you have a duty to make sure that they are not injured at work. Some jobs are just more dangerous than others. Different hazards accompany different jobs though, and no workplace can ever be completely safe. The consequences of not ensuring that the workplace you operate is safe can be bad for your business for a number of reasons.
Time off taken by employees due to sickness and injury is expensive. Providing cover fro absence can involve costly agency staff – and the worst case scenario is that work will be held up due to staff with critical skills being absent. Illness and injury in your workforce is something you have an ability to reduce by operating a safe workplace and implementing safe patterns of working. Many employers have found that initiatives such as gym membership that promote health have helped to reduce medical absenteeism.
One aspect of having a poor track record on health and safety that is easy to overlook is that of reputation. If injuries are common and there is a perception that the workplace is a dangerous one then recruitment could become difficult. Being able to point to an excellent record of injury free working can help avoid having to pay staff an extra ‘danger money’ premium.
Litigation is also a concern. You should of course be insured, but if your insurance has to pay out to an injured employee you could see your premiums rising sharply. This is how compensation solicitor define actionable accidents at work:
- accidents caused by poorly maintained vehicles
- lack of safety equipment
- absence of health and safety training
- failure to implement standard operating procedures
- regular risk assessments not being carried out
‘Health and safety’ gets a bad press sometimes, but all jokes aside it is something that you as an employer ignore at your peril. There is a lot of excellent information on the HSE site – definitely worth consulting.
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