Good Safety is Good Business

Did you know that for every $1 invested into a safety and health program, the estimated return is $4 - $6? It's also estimated that an effective safety and health program can also reduce your injury and illness rate by 20%. (Source)

Most small businesses likely implement safety programs because it's the right thing to do and because they care about their employees. These are the right motivations, and it's part of what can build loyalty to the workplace and a positive company culture. However, these days you can also quantify your safety program, and in the fast-paced data-driven world of business, making a good financial argument for safety can only help to build support for implementing a safety and health program.

It's easy to think of your safety program as a pure cost to the business since the financial benefits are harder to quantify. But there are areas where a strong safety program will reduce costs and produce benefits.

Here's some areas of cost reduction:

- Decreased medical and property damage repair costs due to incidents

- Decreased staff turnover, which in turn decreases hiring, onboarding, and new employee training costs

- Reduced worker's compensation and other insurance premiums

- Reduced risk of OSHA citations and fines

And there's also areas where you can see benefits:

- Increased profits from improved or maintained good company reputation

- Improved productivity

- Increased employee morale

- Improved company reputation

OSHA also has an online tool that calculates the total costs of specific injuries, so companies can see the real impact incidents could have to their bottom line. For instance, one case of carpal tunnel syndrome is estimated to cost an employer a total of over $64,000. You can find the calculator here.

So many businesses think of investing in safety as an afterthought. However, thoughtfully employing safety best practices is not only a better outcome for employees, but to a company's bottom line.