Health and Safety. It’s one of those areas in a business that is a necessary evil. No one really wants to take responsibility for it – yet it’s absolutely essential to the day to day running of operations – and not to mention a legal requirement. People Matter’s HR, one of the North West’s leading HR consultancies, has a growing health and safety offering to protect and support our client’s businesses. In our latest blog, we’ve rounded up our top five reasons why businesses should sort out their health and safety function – right now.
It’s the right thing to do.
Yes, of course it’s a legal obligation – but we’re delving a little deeper than that here. Any business owner with a moral conscience should be making it their own personal mission to ensure that their employees return home healthy and safe at the end of the working day. This means that they are protected at work, both physically, and in turn, mentally and what’s more, fully understand the steps that you, as their employer, has taken to achieve this.
Customers care who they do business with
Gone are the days when price was everything. Today’ customers, in terms of both B2B and B2C really care who they place their business with. Many will spend a considerable amount of time researching potential suppliers and partners and on the whole, customers want to work with businesses who operate ethically with a strong corporate responsibility ethic. So, it’s key that organisations think about both their internal work practices and those throughout the wider supply chain – and deal only with ethical suppliers that protect their workforce.
It increases productivity
A happy workforce is a productive workforce. Ensuring that that the working environment is physically safe for employees to operate in day-to-day offers peace of mind and in turn gives a positive impact on their mental health. Getting it right can mean the workforce is at its most productive, as a poor and unsafe working environment can of course have a hugely negative impact on employees wellbeing. In turn, their enthusiasm in coming to work each day can suffer, meaning a huge reduction in productivity.
It sets you apart from competitors
Every business has competition these days – and as we know, that can be healthy. To really stand out in the crowd, you need to cover all angles. A great health and safety record can really give you that advantage: it builds trust in your reputation and brand, while poor performance in this department will directly affect profitability and can result in loss of trade or in the worst case scenario, even closure of the business.
It’s incredibly easy to set up
If you don’t have the capacity to look after health and safety internally, there are many benefits to using an outsourced HR consultancy, including cost, level of expertise and productivity.
If you can find an outsourced HR company that will also look after your health and safety, this is better still. By offering an HR function, your consultancy will already have a deep understanding of the inner workings for your organisation and as an external sounding board, often a detailed overview of employee opinion. This can be useful when planning for health and safety, particularly in terms of culture change.