Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Workplace Safety And Profitability Are Strange Bedfellows ...

According to some figures recently released, an excess of 40 million workers in the United States required emergency medical assistance for injuries incurred in the workplace. This is a staggering number when one considers the efforts most companies have put into maintaining a safe workplace. The past few years have seen a rise in the number of companies legally mandated to pay financial restitution to victims of workplace-related injuries. Workplace safety and profitability make strange bedfellows, but in business parlance they are bedfellows nonetheless.

Companies may strive these days to achieve synergy, but for those in industrial manufacturing, synergy manifests itself in Six Sigma effective products and processes. These companies realize the congruence between high profits and effective and efficient means in creating products. Unfortunately, too many companies get caught up in drive for higher profits and tend to allow workplace safety to become an afterthought.

One cannot help but be dumbfounded by the staggering costs of operating a sizeable manufacturing facility in America. Workplace injuries place a massive burden of expense and weakened productivity on a company. By being detail-oriented and focused on preventative measures, a lot of these injuries can be precluded. Most workplace injuries are preventable. The safety and spick-and-span condition of a workplace is probably the best possible way a company can prevent injuries from occurring, though the factors in avoiding injurious accidents are not limited to this. Workers, too, have a responsibility in keeping themselves safe from harm.

Workplace injuries place a significant burden on health care providers and insurance companies. As companies continue to pay higher premiums for employee health care, one of the only means available for cost recovery is to increase the prices of the goods they produce. Now as one would surmise, companies are now free to ignore what actually causes workplace injuries, as the consumer is caught with egg on his face shouldering the burden. Veteran economists such as ourselves are ruing the current business paradigm wherein business organizations are more concerned about currying the favor of shareholders rather than remaining in favor with the rank and file by caring for their health and safety.

It is interesting to note that there are record numbers of jobs, especially in the industrial sector, being sent overseas. To wit, there are several reasons why this is the case. By inexpensively acquiring labor from mostly third world countries, American companies are thus able to significantly cut down on the costs of operation, costing a mere percentage of what they would normally be paying for domestic assistance. The foreign governments, on the other hand, are all too happy to invest, and as a result, giddily accommodate the interest invested by corporate America. Far too often, this comes at the expense of workplace safety.

So that they could realize optimal profit in the long term, large American companies are behooved to descry their approach to workplace safety and ask themselves whether they truly prioritize their workers? health and safety. With the number of foreign countries offering inexpensive labor and a lax labor code still numerous, American companies still outsource their jobs overseas. Yet it is possible for American companies to find synergy between profit and safety. By making a concerted effort towards targeted safety education and preventative measures, it is possible to reduce workplace injuries. If a company?s workers are safe, they will be happy, and if they are happy, they will reciprocate with good production.

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Categorised as: genral


Source: http://www.hernandezforassembly.com/workplace-safety-and-profitability-are-strange-bedfellows/

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