Why worry about workplace safety? Because if you fail to do so, that could literally destroy your business! Here’s why workplace safety and job satisfaction are both essential for business success!
Workplace safety is a really complex aspect for all business owners.
First of all, there are regulations that force you to keep your workplace safe for your employees. If you fail to do so, you could be liable for substantial penalties that will likely considerably affect your business’s cash flow.
Secondly, you have the moral responsibility to keep your employees safe while they are at work.
What’s more, good health of employees and safety practices protect employees. But, they do more than that. They also help create an environment that encourages economic growth and success.
Now, according to the Health and Safety Executive 2019/2020 data, 111 workers were killed at work due to a workplace injury. Plus, other 693,000 workers suffered a non-fatal injury in their workplaces.
Imagine, just for a second, what it would have meant for your business to be one of those companies whose employees got injured, or even worse, died, at work. Would have such an event destroyed your reputation? Cost you a lot of money in compensations or working days lost? Would it have cost you some of your best employees because they would have lost their trust in you as an employer? If you’ve answered “yes” to any of these questions, you need to take workplace safety more seriously!
Keep reading below to find out why workplace safety is so essential, its relationship with job satisfaction among employees, and some recommendations on the best practices to keep your team safe.
The Relationship Between Workplace Safety and Job Satisfaction
Is there any connection between workplace safety and job satisfaction? Absolutely! Plenty of studies suggest it.
Employee safety climate perceptions are often linked to job satisfaction and engagement. In other words, workers who feel safe in their workplaces feel more satisfied with their jobs and actually perform better.
Now, employee satisfaction is one of the key goals of all HR specialists. That’s because a happy employee is not just a retained employee but also an ambassador for the brand, both internally and externally. Happy employees are loyal to the company and to its objectives, which is why they go above and beyond to help the company achieve its goals, showing engagement and motivation.
But employees who don’t feel safe at work simply can’t be satisfied with their jobs. They feel stressed about their wellbeing, both mental and physical. And, from here, there’s a vicious circle that benefits neither the employee nor the employer.
Stress leads to job dissatisfaction, which leads to loss of productivity and decreased engagement, leading to poorer results for the company. So, it’s obvious why no one benefits from failing to make your employees feel safe at work.
Other Reasons Why You Need To Keep Your Workplace Safe
But keep your employees satisfied by keeping them safe isn’t the only reason to ensure that your workplace is a safe climate.
More precisely, safe working environments benefit from fewer accidents, resulting in fewer health costs for your employees, increased retention, and less employee downtime and retraining time. Here are other reasons to take employee safety at work seriously:
Employee Retention
Satisfied employees are loyal because they feel like their employer cares about their wellbeing. So, they tend to stay longer at workplaces where their safety is important for the organization. In contrast, those who don’t feel safe are more likely to search for new employers.
Employee retention also saves you a lot of time in terms of hiring new employees and retraining.
Company Finances
Employees who suffer accidents at work that could have been prevented with good safety practices within the organization can rightfully and legally claim compensation for an accident at work. The employer can be liable to pay some substantial sums for compensation. So, if you fail to prevent such accidents, the employees who get hurt due to poor safety conditions have the legal right to sue your company and ask for compensation.
What’s more, according to the Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index, for every 1$ spent by a company on workplace safety, there’s a return of $4.
Your company’s finances can suffer really bad if you fail to follow HSE’s rules and workplace safety guidelines.
Company Reputation and Employer Branding
Companies that fail to keep their employees safe can quickly develop a reputation of an unsafe employer, affecting the organization’s branding and talent attraction efforts. In other words, one accident in your workplace can destroy your company’s reputation within minutes, affecting your customers, competitors, and the general public’s perception of your brand.
Workplace Safety Best Practices
Now you know why workplace safety is so crucial to business success, but how do you actually ensure safe working conditions for your employees? Here are a few tips:
Identify Workplace Safety Hazards
You can’t possibly know what you need to protect your employees from if you’re not sure what risks they are exposed to. Have your workplace inspected by specialists and talk to your employees to understand the potential sources of hazard.
Create Safety Policies and Ask Employees To Follow Them
Workplace safety requires some teamwork. You can’t fully protect your employees from the workplace risks unless they cooperate and respect your company’s safety policies as well.
So, for example, if your employees need to wear protective equipment to protect themselves from falls, toxic substances, or heavy equipment, demand them to do so.
Encourage Employees To Communicate
As a business owner, it can be difficult to be constantly involved in identifying hazards at your workplace. So, once again, you need to work together with your employees because they know best the challenges and struggles they deal with every day at work. Make sure you encourage your employees to speak up if there’s anything they feel worried about.
Train Your Employees Really Well
Trained employees tend to make fewer mistakes that can lead to accidents in the workplace. So, make sure you provide your employees with comprehensive training to ensure that they know how to protect themselves from possible hazards that exist in your workplace.
Safety First sign -DepositPhotos
