Legal

Regardless of personal opinion, all businesses have legal obligations relating to safety which they must adhere to in order to continue trading. Therefore, to ensure a business can continue running legally, safety should be closely monitored. Many businesses opt to also implement their own additional safety policies to help govern this and protect both staff and the business.

Employee satisfaction

Ultimately, a business is nothing without its employees. If staff feel they aren’t being taken care of and protected at work, they are likely to look for a new job elsewhere. This can have instrumental impacts on business performance and lead to high turnover rates which come with both associated costs and lengthy interview and training processes.

Productivity

If employees don’t feel safe but aren’t in a position to leave their roles then it is likely that they won’t be operating at maximum capacity, as it has been shown that people are more productive when they feel safe. This will then have a knock-on effect on other areas of the business and directly impact profit levels.

Public image

We don’t often think about safety when it comes to the marketing and PR of a business, but the reality is that this can play a large part in the success or downfall of the public’s perception of an organisation.

A business with poor safety will suffer threefold as a consequence. Firstly, consumers are becoming increasingly concerned with a business’ ethics and making more informed decisions when it comes to spending. Therefore, a business that has a record of poor safety is likely to be less favourable with potential customers.

Secondly, recruitment may become equally challenging if safety isn’t prioritised. With the current candidate’s job market, those applying for jobs can afford to be more selective and so it is more important than ever for businesses to have a strong offering if they want to attract the best talent. Those applying, similar to potential customers, are more than likely to do research beforehand and will be put off by a business that has a bad safety record.

Thirdly, a lack of safety concern can be extremely detrimental to businesses when attempting to attract investors or build future partnerships. This is something that will be scrutinised and may be the reason people chose not to invest or associate themselves with the business.

Cost

It is undeniable that safety incidents can be very costly for businesses. There is the cost of having people off work, which may also result in the cost of additional cover during their time off. For certain safety incidents, there may also be legal costs involved, if the cause of the incident is due to negligence on behalf of the business. For example, if an employee involved in a safety mishap were to be injured and make a head injury claim, this could be very costly both in terms of company outgoings and reputational damage. It is therefore crucial to invest in proper safety precautions to reduce future costs.