A Culture Centered On Prevention and Wellness Is The Right Thing to Do.
Injury prevention and wellness for all employees is simply the right thing to do. This is a crystal clear fact. If you’re reading this right now, we know you’re probably saying, “Right on! I’ve been saying this for years.”
We appreciate your caring attitude and willingness to fight the good fight.
Unfortunately, sometimes just doing the right thing is not always enough to get the number crunchers on board. They want to hear the “business case” for health and safety initiatives.
Well, here it is.
Prevention is a smart business strategy.
The good news is that creating a great workplace safety culture at your facility will bring about a positive business return. A safe business is a well-run, efficient business.
Safety culture will contain costs.
Workers compensation and health care costs are spiraling out of control. Smart companies proactively contain these costs to improve their bottom line with results-based safety and wellness programs.
Safety culture will improve productivity.
Healthy, happy workers are more productive workers. Presenteeism and absenteeism cost companies billions in lost productivity each year. Contain this cost and boost performance with sensible, results-based safety and health initiatives
Safety culture will build a higher quality product.
When a worker is experiencing pain and discomfort, their mind is on … their pain and discomfort! Not what they are supposed to be concentrating on, which is the product they are involved in producing.
Safety culture leads to higher job satisfaction and a competitive advantage in people.
Companies that show a commitment to the health and safety of workers and their families earn the trust and admiration of employees, leading to high job satisfaction. Numerous studies show that high job satisfaction leads to better work productivity.
Your people are your greatest asset – take care of them and empower them to flourish at your company. Your bottom line will flourish as a result.
Smart companies are leading by example
Savvy CEO’s are leading by example. Safety culture is their first priority, and they’re seeing a return on this investment.
Winner of the 2011 Green Cross for Safety Medal, Schneider Electric, is leading the way.
When asked, “How does safety pay at your company?” Schneider Electric CEO Chris Curtis said, “It’s really not about the dollars; it’s about people. Knowing that more than 500 people each year are safer than when we started is a great payment. It shows our employees and their families that we care; and when we say one injury is too many, we mean it. You can’t put a price tag on that.
Undeniably, our safety improvements also have been good for the bottom line. Our improved safety performance has generated more than $10 million a year in direct savings to our company. We call this our safety dividend. We use it to reinvest in our people through programs like free health assessments, personal fitness subsidies, onsite fitness centers, “green” teams and other programs that encourage our people to be safe, healthy and community-minded.“
(Disclosure: Schneider Electric is a client)
Takeaway
Safety culture is good for your people and good for your bottom line. It has to be viewed (and presented to management) as an investment, not an expense.
Check out the rest of the Safety Culture 101 series.
