Work Injury Prevention
Why Have a Workplace Injury and Illness Prevention Program?
Taking risks is a part of running a business, particularly for small business owners. You take risks in product development, marketing, and advertising in order to stay competitive. Some risks are just not worth the gamble. One of these is risking the safety and health of those who work for you.
Accidents Cost Money
Safety organizations, states, small business owners and major corporations alike now realize that the actual cost of a lost workday injury is substantial. For every dollar you spend on the direct costs of a worker’s injury or illness, you will spend much more to cover the indirect and hidden costs. Consider what one lost workday injury would cost you in terms of:
- Productive time lost by an injured employee;
- Productive time lost by employees and supervisors attending the accident victim;
- Clean up and start up of operations interrupted by the accident;
- Time to hire or to retrain other individuals to replace the injured worker until his/her return;
- Time and cost for repair or replacement of any damaged equipment or materials;
- Cost of continuing all or part of the employee’s wages, in addition to compensation;
- Reduced morale among your employees, and perhaps lower efficiency;
- Increased workers’ compensation insurance rates; and
- Cost of completing paperwork generated by the incident.