Reducing workplace injuries is good business sense

When a workplace injury takes place, it not only places a financial and emotional toll on the victims and their family members, but it also affects an employer’s bottom line. This is why it is important to everyone affected that the injured employee recovery properly and timely.

Workplace injuries and illnesses across the country cost $250 million annually, $30 billion more than the direct and indirect costs of cancer and $187 billion more than the costs associated with cancer, according to a recent study released by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Though it is not possible to quantify the pain and suffering a North Carolina workplace accident victim suffers, companies often break everything down into numbers to see how various factors effect their costs. And the truth of the matter is that occupational injuries and illnesses make up around 5 percent of a company’s total costs.

Employers with a safe workplace environment not only enjoy worker’s respect and a sense of satisfaction from knowing they did everything in their power to avoid tragic workplace accidents, but also enjoy lower workplace insurance premiums. It is an employer’s duty to take measures to create a safe workplace environment and when they neglect their duty, an injured employee can file a workers’ compensation claim to recover medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering.

Taking a few steps to improve worker safety makes business sense for employers. Creating a workplace safety committee, investigating every accident to determine its cause and take speedy action to ensure it doesn’t take place again, implementing safety rules and getting senior management to commit to creating a safe workplace are just a few ways North Carolina employers can make their office space safer for its employees.

Source: Deseret News, “Increasing safety efforts to lower occupational injury costs,” Ray Pickup, June 22, 2013