Why should you manage Health and Safety?

In this blog I would like to talk a little about why organisations should manage Health and Safety.  There are principally three main reasons why any organisation should manage Health and Safety (H&S)….. these include a moral obligation, a legal duty and a number of economic reasons.

I guess we would like to believe that the prime motivator for managing Health and Safety would be for MORAL reasons, whether this is in fact the case may be argued in some instances.  It would however be unreasonable to expect workers to risk life and limb for their employer when going about their working duties.  Employers owe a ‘duty of reasonable care’ to his or her employees and society expect employers to show a professional attitude towards H&S for his or her employees. 

There are plenty of statistics to prove that employees working for smaller organisations are at greater risk than those working in larger organisations.

Over the years many of the moral obligations have been turned into a LEGAL duty.  The afore mentioned ‘duty of care’ is seen within the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and regulations made under it.  There are three strong legal reasons why organisations should choose to manage H&S, namely preventive which can be enforcement notices served by enforcement inspectors.  Punitive which is where criminal courts can impose fines or imprisonment for breaches of legal duties and the third being compensatory where employees can sue in a civil court for compensation.

The ECONOMIC reasons associated to accidents and to ill-health can be great and these are categorised as direct or indirect, insured and uninsured.  Direct Costs are calculable and arise from sick pay, repairs to machinery, fines and legal fees to name but a few.  Indirect costs do not generally involve the payment of monies for example lost orders, business interruption, publicity.  These costs are usually difficult to determine but usually considered to be far more than the direct costs.  Many costs can be insured against and the HSE study on the ‘Cost of Accidents at Work’ found that for every £1 that employers spend on insurance, the uninsured costs of accidents over a year amount to between 8 and 36 times that amount.

It’s also interesting when you consider how we as a society bear the burden of accidents in the workplace, for example the National Health Service costs which are funded by us the taxpayer for the immediate and long-term consequences of accidents and ill-health.  An individual whose capacity is impaired is likely to see a reduction in income – which means paying less tax to the state, and the need to claim state benefits.

There is obviously a huge cost saving to be gained by successfully managing health and safety within the workplace.

For more advice on Health and Safety and how you can provide effective, accredited training and save money take a look at www.learnsom.com/business