The physical, mental, and social safety of employees is of crucial importance for any organization. Their well-being and safety serve a great purpose for the entire organization. Organizations can only achieve the optimally desired levels of workforce productivity if their employees feel safe at their workplace.
Occupational health and safety management at the workplace is the best way of ensuring employees’ well-being. It involves critically analyzing the workplace and looking for all the factors that can pose a potential threat to employees’ health and safety. These factors might include biological agents, chemicals and physical hazards, ergonomic issues, psychological fallout, or accidents.
Occupational health and safety management address these issues through a broad scope of preventive measures. It promotes and maintains working capacity, improves the working environment, and promotes a positive social climate. In other words, it covers employee welfare from different angles.
In case you have been wondering why occupational health and safety management is necessary for workplaces, you are at the right place. This article highlights three reasons to ensure occupational health and safety management at the workplace since lack of safety measures may result in ruining your business reputation.
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It makes you compliant with the law
There are formal legislative requirements for maintaining proper occupational and safety protocols at workplaces. Every region and country has different legislative requirements to meet safety standards in the workplace. For example, most construction companies generally face legal legislation due to the use of asbestos at various locations, which ultimately results in causing mesothelioma among workers. It is a form of lung cancer and one of the leading causes of death among construction workers. If your company is a part of the construction industry, you must find the relevant authoritative body or relevant sources to read more about your local laws.
Today, several organizations are working to ensure that each and every company complies with these laws. The International Labor Organization (ILO) is undoubtedly the most prominent name among all such organizations. The ILO has already adopted about 40 standards precisely targeting occupational health and safety. It also has more than 40 Codes of Practice. Moreover, around half of all the ILO’s instruments either directly or indirectly deal with occupational health and safety issues. It has made it pertinent for all the 193 member countries of the UNO to follow these rules.
Companies that ensure proper occupational health and safety management practices in the workplace save themselves from federal penalty charges and other hassles in case of non-compliance to these laws.
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It reduces the Chances of Workplace hazards
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2019, more than 5333 workers died at construction sites. You can only imagine the staggering numbers in various developing countries around the world. These accidents not only cause the loss of essential lives but are a considerable bottleneck for your organizational progress as well.
As per the records of ILO, the US bears an approximate loss of 4% of the global GDP due to various direct and indirect costs of occupational hazards and diseases. That amounts to a whopping $2.8 trillion. Such incidents can cause harm to any company’s reputation and its overall work processes. Besides, in many cases, organizations are expected to provide additional compensation to injured employees. It ultimately develops financial burdens on the company.
However, developing and implementing proper occupational health and safety protocols can save your organization from various extreme losses. It further helps to develop and ensure a safe working environment for everyone.
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It saves your company from defamation
Public perception is the most crucial driver of success for any organization. Poor occupational health and safety management can certainly tarnish the public image of an organization. In this modern era of digitalization, a single uncertain incident related to employee safety can easily destroy the public image of any company within minutes.
To date, most people remember the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 or the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. Nike also lost quite some public respect when they were found involved in a similar situation. They were dealing with vendors from developing countries who were practicing poor occupational health and safety measures. Even companies as big as these two lost tremendous public respect for their malpractices and improper occupational health and safety standards. Consumers lost trust in these companies, resulting in causing a significant decrease in their sales.
Therefore, occupational health and safety management at the workplace saves your reputation in public. It projects your positive image not only in public but also among employees. It creates a positive word of mouth and enhances your perception in the corporate sector.
Final Words
It is significant for every business to have the right policies and resources to ensure appropriate occupational health and safety measures for employees. Undoubtedly, occupational health and safety management has direct and direct impacts on every business functionality. From finance to compliance and even to marketing, your value proposition is dependent on it. Anyone with the right business acumen would certainly make them an integral part of the organizational culture. You must analyze your organization and study relevant local laws to incorporate occupational health and safety management in your managerial policy.
