Within a business, nothing is more important the safety of its employees. The employees should not be afraid of where they work. As a manager, you want your employees to leave work in the same condition they came to work. Workplace injuries affect your employees’ personal lives, as well as the life of the business.
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Injury
An injury at work is a tremendous loss for the employee or employees involved as well as the business. Injuries hurt the morale of everyone involved. They can cause negativity among the employees because they may start thinking the business is not a safe environment in which to work. As a manager, you need to think about how injuries impact the human side of the business.
Financial Loss
Beyond the human side of the incident, injuries can result in serious financial loss. The cost of workers’ compensation, possible litigation, and other factors far outweigh the cost of purchasing safety devices. Utilizing such sources as Blackline Safety for your safety devices can have a large impact on building a safe and productive environment for your employees.
OSHA Reporting
Injuries that occur in the workplace will undoubtedly trigger an inspection from OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration. Besides a negative mark from OSHA, the unsafe workplace could be hit with severe fines. This again results in a financial loss. In some cases, the OSHA filing could be visible in the media, resulting in a public relations issue which would make the company appear as though they don’t care about their employees.
Litigation
An employee who is injured may decide to proceed with litigation against the company, citing negligence. This would result in a public shaming of the company as all legal activity is for public scrutiny. Beyond the financial loss due to the one injury, other employees who have been injured in the past may decide to sue the company based on past negligence.
Employee Actions
While management is responsible for ensuring the safety of the workplace, employees are responsible for pointing out specific safety issues. Most workplaces will have a safety committee where issues of safety are discussed, and ideas for safety are presented. Employees should be encouraged to share their ideas and observations to play a critical part on the front line. Their ideas may become reality, therefore protecting the workplace from situations that could possibly result in tragic consequences.
Safety devices are always important. It serves the company’s public perception. It takes care of employees and keeps them free from possible injury. A valued employee is one who feels safe in the workplace, and free from the stress associated with unsafe conditions. The morale of employees will improve, as well as their productivity and connections to management. If employees work with management on possible safety issues, ideas and observations will result in a much safer working environment. This will improve, in whole, the company and the workplace.
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