Why Safety Management is Vital to Your Organisation
If you care about your business and the people that work within it, you need to have measures in place to protect their safety, your liability and your reputation. Unfortunately, accidents can happen. They are a business risk we need to accept and try to mitigate at every opportunity. One of the best ways to reduce the risk, is to put effective safety management processes in place. However, managing workplace health and safety has more to offer than reducing just the risk of injury and illness; it can actually make your business more successful in achieving is goals.
Reducing Business Costs
When an accident happens in the workplace, in the best-case scenario, you are looking at employees having to take several days off work. When there is a work-related illness or serious injury, the impact could last far longer. And, all of this comes at a significant cost.
If you don’t have risk management methods in place, mistakes can be expensive to correct. Every time an accident occurs, you’ll be starting from scratch and reacting to the problem in a knee-jerk fashion. By implementing safety management, you have a formula in place to reduce risk and, in turn, you can reduce business costs by:
Retaining staff - not only will staff compensation claims push up your insurance premiums, but you’ll need to replace absent workers. By managing safety, you can retain your staff and reduce recruitment and training costs.
Improving performance - by managing safety, you will implement systems for handling activities such as incident reporting and responding to hazards and thereby reduce the associated organisational costs.
Boosting efficiency - you can gain efficiencies across the board by reducing the occurrence of incidents, minimising worker absences, decreasing insurance premiums, and improving staff morale and staff retention.
Keeping Your Business Compliant
As a business leader, you have an obligation to comply with workplace health and safety (WHS) laws. That means proactively managing the health and safety of employees, contractors and members of the public. But, more than that, you need to be able to prove you are adhering to regulations, notifying the regulator when incidents occur, effectively recording incidents and ensuring you have all the necessary documentation in place for your business and any contractors you engage.
By implementing risk management methods, you can ensure your business, your employees, and your contractors are aware of the legal requirements and what needs to be done to adhere to them. What’s more, you will have processes and procedures in place to support workplace health and safety and keep you on track at all times.
Improving Your Reputation
One of the most important aspects of safety management is what it demonstrates to your employees, contractors, suppliers, and, indeed, the general public. By proactively managing safety, you are showing your commitment to protecting the health and well-being of those who work for you. It can go a long way to helping your business:
Boosting morale - your workforce is your best business asset, by showing you are doing everything you can to protect your workers, they are much more likely to be engaged not only in their work but in your safety initiatives.
Demonstrating social good - doing social good is a bit part of our business these days. Safety management shows that you value the physical, social and mental well-being of your workers.
Improving public image - more than complying with legislation and reducing risk, safety management demonstrates your organisation's ethics. Consumers are much more likely to trust companies that value health and safety.
Securing finance - finding investment for your company isn’t always straightforward. However, it is much easier when you can demonstrate that your business is well-managed. With fewer accidents and clear procedures when they do occur, you will improve your bottom line and make it much more likely that you’ll win investments.
Improving your reputation has many positive knock-on effects. If your workers feel more valued, they will be more productive. Once you have a business that your workers are proud to be part of, they are much more likely to stick with you. And, with improved staff retention, your business is able to grow.
Growing Your Business
By effectively managing workplace health and safety, you can achieve so much more than just your safety goals. Implementing safety management will help you realise economic, legal and social benefits. The result is a business that is compliant with Australian WHS law, trusted by customers and respected by workers, and that is a business that has potential to not only meet and exceed goals but also grow the right way in the process.
For over a decade, Conserve has helped organisations overcome contractor management challenges. We can help you develop a contractor management service that will be not only effective but will make your organisation safer, while minimising your overall risk. Request a demo now or visit the Conserve page for more great content.
For more information, call +61 2 8883 1501, visit www.conserve.com.au or email enquiries@conserve.com.au