Businesses and organizations are entrusted with a responsibility to protect and safeguard their employees from all hazards. Occupational health and safety standards are legally binding and require all employers to comply to ensure worker safety.
All businesses and organizations operate on a unique trajectory, specific to their industry and mode of operations. Naturally, each business deals with various risks that impact employee health and safety. For instance, construction companies must protect employees from heavy equipment, asbestos exposure, and other hazards.
Similarly, manufacturing businesses protect their employees from exposure to harmful chemicals, toxins, and substances. Maintaining a healthy work environment that is free of bullying and harassment is also imperative. Keep reading to take a closer look at why companies must implement occupational health and safety standards with scrutiny and vigilance.
Preventing Legal Turbulence
Legal troubles and employee lawsuits threaten the public image and industry standing of an organization. Nothing tarnishes a business more than a courtroom debacle highlighting its incompetence for the world to see and scrutinize. Companies strive to avoid legal turbulence at all costs, preventing issues from ending up in court.
However, in cases of negligence in workplace safety and OHS compliance, a lawsuit brings more trouble than just negative publicity. Businesses end up losing hundreds and thousands of dollars in legal fees and lawsuit settlements. OHS compliance offers solid grounds to employees who have life-threatening injuries or risks at the hands of employer negligence.
For instance, manufacturing companies often come under fire for asbestos exposure, which leads to cancer, primarily mesothelioma. Employers and businesses must ensure an asbestos-free environment to ensure employee safety from deadly diseases. However, if employers fail to comply, employees reserve the right to file an asbestos mesothelioma lawsuit in court.
Typically, such lawsuits are resolved within a year, and courts and juries empathize with cancer patients. The financial cost and negative publicity from such a lawsuit are unprecedentedly damaging. It’s wise to avoid such a drastic turn of events and focus on ensuring asbestos-free manufacturing processes.
Reducing Workplace Injury and Illnesses
Faulty equipment, environmental hazards, and lack of adequate safety requirements lead to workplace injury and illnesses. All manufacturing businesses strive to maintain workforce safety and health to prevent productivity halts and maintain efficiency. However, many companies focus more on production and less on worker safety.
Such businesses continue forcing their employees to use faulty machinery, lift heavy equipment and remain exposed to toxins and pollutants. Manufacturers and producers who do not care about worker safety usually end up compromising product quality. They also expose their employees to a plethora of diseases and injuries.
Usually, white-collar employees and high-paying professionals do not find themselves working in such conditions. In contrast, such situations arise in manufacturing plants, factories, and chemical plants. These businesses often get away with OHS non-compliance because their employees are not strong enough to protest.
However, once trade and labor unions get wind of the issue, conflict and tensions prevail. These conflicts often lead to public demonstrations and strikes, attracting the attention of activists and governments.
Boosting Productivity and Efficiency
A healthy, safe, and inclusive workplace inspires productivity and efficiency by motivating employees to deliver their best. Scrutiny and attention to employee safety and wellbeing inspire loyalty, encouraging employees to embrace organizational goals wholeheartedly.
Leaders often struggle to motivate employees and encourage them to align their personal goals with the organizational vision. Compliance with OHS standards and prioritizing employee wellbeing is an excellent tactic to win employee loyalty. For instance, Google has a spectacular employer’s brand image, characterized by a harmonious and healthy organizational culture.
Young professionals, tech geniuses, and students worldwide aspire to work for Google, attracted by its workplace culture. Organizational cultures that emphasize employee wellbeing create a caring culture, and employees reciprocate this care and concern. Therefore, they are more likely to channel their creative energies into delivering their absolute best each day.
Acquiring and Retaining Top Talent
All businesses strive to acquire and retain talented and skilled professionals to drive growth, innovation, and creativity. However, qualified and experienced professionals are self-aware and demand safe and healthy working conditions. Therefore, manufacturers looking to acquire and retain talent must ensure OHS compliance and healthy workplace environments.
Building an inclusive and dynamic employer’s brand isn’t an easy endeavor. It takes years of dedication to maintain employee safety and protection standards. Compliance with OHS and emphasis on employee wellbeing allow businesses to enhance their employer’s brand. Naturally, it makes it easier for organizations to acquire and retain top talent from the industry.
Avoiding Unnecessary Expenses
Legal fees, hefty lawsuit settlements, workers’ compensation, and injury costs are avoidable expenses that businesses can prevent. Compliance with OHS standards allows manufacturing companies to steer clear of preventable costs that cripple their financial health.
Negative publicity stemming from lawsuits and scandals creates many costs, resulting from lost customers and reduced sales. Businesses have much more to lose than their employees in the long run – their credibility, integrity, and profitability.
