Post-Covid-19 organizations have made workplace health and safety a compulsory practice. Organizations these days do not take occupational health for granted. There’s been an increased inclination to keep employees safe at the workplace ever since the pandemic disrupted the world’s idea of safety. Some U.S. Bureau Of Labor 2020 stats that have further highlighted this issue are:
- Private industry employers reported 2.7 million injury and illness cases.
- Fatal workplace injuries were recorded at 4,764.
- A worker died every 111 minutes from an occupational injury.
- Exposure to hazardous substances or environments led to 672 worker fatalities.
Workplaces are highly focused on sensibly managing hazards and risks to protect their workers from possible unsafe practices. Factors like sanitation, fire prevention, first aid, Covid-19 SOPs, and other prevention and cautionary measures have become everyday practice in workplaces prioritizing sustainable development.
What is Occupational Health and Safety?
Occupational health and safety, in a nutshell, can be described as any initiative an organization’s management takes to make the workplace safer for its employees. There are two aspects of this:
- Occupational Safety: Protecting workers from potential safety hazards and risk factors in the workplace.
- Occupational Health: Protecting workers from potential health concerns affecting human well-being in the workplace.
Earlier companies focused on complying with occupational health and safety because the management deemed themselves responsible for the workers. However, now organizations are legally compelled to have Health and Safety Representatives (HSR) that work to minimize workplace accidents, risks, and mistreatments. These representatives’ need to complete a HSR course to where they learn all their responsibilities to make the workplace safer. In doing so, organizations have come across several benefits of maintaining health and safety in workplaces. Some of these include:
1. Enhanced Mental Health and Well-Being
Organizations these days encourage their managerial workforce to enroll in a safety degree online to master the basics of U.S. workplace health and safety. Such affordable and flexible online degree programs enable managers to learn how to keep the workplace environment hazard-free and safe.
As a result, employers start prioritizing their employees’ mental health by tackling workplace stressors such as long work hours, fewer breaks, little recognition, and impossible demands. Focusing on workers’ mental health eliminates stress, fatigue, and exhaustion from the workplace, contributing to little or no long-term mental health problems and issues.
2. Reduced Costs and Legal Trouble
Occupational health and safety measures help organizations keep employees safe from health complications, injuries, illness, and death. Organizations benefit a lot when occurrences of workplace hazards and risks are greatly reduced:
- They don’t have to compensate injured or sick employees.
- They don’t have to lose good employees and delay work schedules due to health and safety issues.
- They don’t have to fight endless legal battles to prove their workplace is safe.
- They don’t have to witness a negative or alarming culture in the workplace.
- They don’t have to deal with high employee turnover rates.
3. Increased Awareness About Safe Working Culture
An essential part of applying occupational health and safety measures in the workplace is ensuring employees know how to deal with these changes—for example, training workers to comply with Covid-19 SOPs. When organizations roll out compulsory health and safety courses and training, they boost awareness.
Employees learn to differentiate between safe and unsafe working cultures, foster healthier workplace environments, minimize risks and hazards, communicate with co-workers better, and tackle complications and issues smartly. The mandatory training also helps people improve their conduct and working habits, greatly benefiting the organization.
4. Strengthened Reputation
Maintaining occupational health and safety standards helps organizations boost their image and reputation in the industry. Their reputation is built stronger in the eyes of the target market as their initiatives come under socially responsible CSR behaviors. Putting people first and valuing their health and safety enables organizations to build a favorable public image.
As a result, more employees are interested in working at the organization. Likewise, more companies are inclined to form alliances, and customer acquisition also rises. Occupational health and safety measures initiate a chain reaction of growth opportunities.
5. Increased Workplace Productivity
When organizations execute occupational health and safety measures, employees feel valued in the workplace. When employers express that they regard their workers’ protection, the workers feel the need to be more loyal to their work to give back to the business. Thus, workers become more productive with increased morale and workplace satisfaction.
Employee turnover rate also decreases notably, favoring the organization. Moreover, these initiatives genuinely keep people protected from sickness, injuries, and more. They take lesser leaves from work and are more actively available to commit to job tasks and demands. It also significantly raises workplace productivity which benefits the company.
6. Improved Training and Conduct
Occupational health and safety courses and training help employees understand how to work better. They learn how to minimize workplace risks by using heavy machinery and other tools more responsibly, walking around dangerous zones, taking preventive measures, and helping co-workers deal with emergencies.
A highly trained staff conducts themselves appropriately, so the workers come across fewer injuries. Moreover, limited person-hours are lost to unwanted and unnecessary hazardous events. Overall, workplace quality standards increase, giving organizations an edge over competitors.
7. Enriched Opportunities and Resources
Organizations looking to attract new work opportunities must actively focus on their occupational health and safety practices. By training their employees for the better, organizations set a great example for others to follow. Some firms exceed levels of excellence in doing so and attract the attention of fellow companies, which creates several opportunities. Others approach exemplary organizations to share success stories, assist in employee training, and sponsor health and safety courses so that others can benefit from their ideals.
While the culture of health and safety at work spreads across industries at mass, this spread creates new revenue opportunities for the organization. Ultimately, it allows them to expand their earning frame and invest in other resources to further fuel their growth.
Conclusion
Nowadays, occupational safety and health practices have become a prominent part of organizational conduct. To make it big in the future, organizations need to hire occupational safety practitioners who can make the workplace experience enriching. The abovementioned benefits explain the significance of prioritizing health, safety, and environmental training.
Today, organizations looking to promote and implement occupational health and safety measures in their workflow must train their employees. Eventually, they will succeed in converting all their tragic losses relating to workplace accidents into profits and revenues.
