There is an old saying by Tacitus, “the desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.” It’s a very wise statement and particularly when we talk about employee safety. Business is not built by intangible assets and infrastructures alone. We need a human form to build businesses and if those working towards achieving a common goal are not safe then about the business growth, the less said the better. Why should an organization be responsible for employee safety? How is an employee safety important for the general growth of business link? Let’s find out by studying following syllogism.
The employee health and safety is to be undertaken in consideration by the employer as per law itself. However, this should not be seen as something legal and binding but rather as a responsibility. This should ensure that the workplace is not hazardous and a safety check is done on all equipment, supplies, fire safety, lockout, water to food and even transportation facilities.
Preventing a hazard to your employee not only means life and health safety for the employee but for the safety of business reputation itself. Imagine what reputation it will leave on minds of investors and even on professionals who would like to join the business in future if they know that regulatory compliance and checks on crucial safety points are not done. Let’s try to understand this by an example. A business ABC employs resources who have to work in shifts and the company provides for the two-way transportation facility. Now the company is already investing money in transportation but if a proper background check is not done on drivers and it leads to an accident or a serious crime it will gain huge negative publicity. The prices of shares go down because investors closely follow the news and above all, someone gets hurt or is in the loss. Let’s take another example where due to lack of proper signs a new employee enters into a site where a safe distance must be maintained from machinery. This could lead to loss of life and not only will the company end up finding itself in between lawsuits ranging from negligence to malicious practices but there will be a discouragement in overall employee satisfaction. No one would like to take charge of a work which is risky and can cost him damage beyond repair.
Sometimes this remains limited to financial costs towards the victim but some businesses have to deal with the menace of occupational ill health depending on nature of their work. A coal mine business or a construction business, for instance, has to implant proper and effective training towards safety if its employees. While climbing or painting a tall building is your labour following safety instructions and wearing a helmet and tying a rope? Does he have a supervisor to check this? Incidents ranging from outbreak of a huge fire to a collapsing wall or even minor injuries can cost on insurance and medical claims and on payment to employee till he recovers. This is something which will not only reduce the productivity and profit in turn but also raise a question on the moral duty of the company to safeguard interests of its own employees. If your employee is sick or is on retention due to rest it is not easy to find an employee with same or even higher skillset. This will cause a disruption to business and the stakeholders will not be pleased by this. Keep in mind hiring a person of right skillset may cost possibly even higher than what your existing employee was being paid.
By definition, safety is the condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury. This may not be a huge hazard but even small injuries like falling due to a wet floor which probably didn’t have a signboard. What it may cause is a loss of working hour and absenteeism. What if this becomes a trend? Without proper employee awareness and safety programme, even the miniature of losses can sum up to become a big hindrance in the growth of business in a seamless manner. Hence any business must set up a proper framework to ensure its employee safety and thus foster its general growth.
