By now you know that unsafe practices can cost you in many different areas including workers comp and insurance costs, safety fines and the loss or downtime of employees. OSHA's $afety Pays program offers guidelines and tools to help contractors even better understand the impact a lack of safety has on business and profitability.
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According to OSHA, the program "is intended to help raise employers’ awareness of the impact of occupational injuries and illnesses on profitability" and is not a standard or regulation.
The program offers contractors a worksheet where they choose the type of injury from a list and then enter information including workers comp costs, profit margin and number of injuries. The worksheet then provides estimates of direct and indirect costs as well as the amount of sales that would be needed to cover these costs.
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While this tool is only meant as guidance to raise awareness, it can be a great visual to remind business owners, foremen and employees on how unsafe practices impact the company's bottom line. While it may not be the most important reason to work safely, the calculations may offer extra incentive for everyone to reinforce proper safety habits.
