On several occasions now, we have reiterated the importance of basic safety procedures in the workplace, covering such tasks as loading and unloading vehicles.
The HSA (Health and Safety Authority) of Ireland has recently promoted a number of campaigns aimed at sensitising companies to the different issues connected with safety, as well as highlighting the rather worrying data on workplace accidents.
The RSA (Road Safety Authority) is also promoting safe driving campaigns aimed at minimising the risks of road traffic accidents as well as raising awareness as to the kinds of distractions that could affect drivers’ and other road users’ safety.
Here is an interesting US-based infographic on Workplace Related Safety that manages to address the less obvious consequences of negligence, such as forced absence from work, the amount of money companies could save if they had a proper health and safety programme, and the cost of injuries.
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We usually identify accidents at work with downtime of the workforce, forgetting there are a lot of factors involved in accidents that invariably escalate costs.
It is also true that some companies might ignore the worry of health and safety and just defer any such concerns until auditing or inspection deadlines are imminent; hopefully this infographic will draw attention to the short-sightedness of this approach. The consideration of safety in the workplace is as essential as the consideration of efficiency and profitability, and, in any case, lax safety practices could easily prove very costly for a company.
