Safety On The Job Saves.
In our last article, we discussed five reasons roofers are injured on the job. Our focus was on the safety of you and your workers. After all, we want to make sure everyone goes home healthy at the end of the day. That is what’s most important, no question. But, when running a business, you can’t ignore that injuries also come with financial costs.
The costs of workplace accidents come in two categories: direct and indirect. Some are obvious. Ask any company owner and they’ll immediately mention workers’ comp claims and the money required to cover medical costs and indemnity payments for sick or injured employees. Some, however, don’t jump to mind quite so quickly. Workplace accidents come with many “hidden” costs, including the expense to repair damaged property and train replacement workers. Then there’s the time and effort to investigate the accident and the increases in insurance premiums. Add to that any schedule delays, added administrative time, and negative impact on customer relations and your costs increase exponentially. It’s such an issue, that OSHA has a special program dedicated to raising the awareness of how occupational injuries and illnesses can impact a company’s profitability.
The Safety Pays Program features multiple tools to help employers estimate costs from workplace injuries. You can access a Safety Pays Tool which uses data collected from thousands of workplaces to compare your workplace safety record with your industry peers. There is also an Individual Injury Estimator which focuses on how much a specific injury could cost a business. According to OSHA, “through these tools and related resources, the Safety Pays Program demonstrates the value of implementing workplace safety and health practices that keep employees safe while lowering costs due to work-related injuries and illnesses.”
It’s interesting to note that the Safety Pays Program reports that the lower the direct costs of an accident, the higher the ratio of indirect to direct costs. The more accidents that occur in a workplace, the higher the costs in increased insurance premiums and greater indirect costs. According to the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), those indirect costs can include:
- Wages paid to injured workers for absences not covered by workers’ compensation.
- The wage costs related to time lost through work stoppage associated with the worker injury.
- The overtime costs necessitated by the injury.
- Administrative time spent by supervisors, safety personnel and clerical workers after an injury.
- Training costs for a replacement worker.
- Lost productivity related to work rescheduling, new employee learning curves and accommodation of injured employees.
- Clean-up, repair, and replacement costs of damaged material, machinery and property.
There are other indirect or “hidden” costs the NCCI doesn’t list—some of which could be very significant. Third-party liability and legal costs or OSHA fines and associated legal costs could add up quickly. Low worker morale from the rest of your workforce could negatively impact productivity. And the list, unfortunately, goes on.
The ideal then, is to avoid workplace accidents. Make safety a focus, both for your crew’s wellbeing and your business’ financial health. Accident prevention is important. The direct costs are obvious, but the indirect costs can be just as destructive.
To learn more about Marco and the solutions in our Marco Weather-Tite™ System, visit www.MarcoIndustries.com. To contact us directly, you can email or call 1-800-800-8590.