Why WHS is more important than anything in your Organisation

The health and wellbeing of your staff impact more than you think.

For many of us, work health and safety is a boring topic. Inductions and poorly written manuals are a disappointing reality of most workplaces. However, it doesn’t have to be that boring. The sad fact is, when you legally mandate something, people often fulfil only the most basic requirements.

However, work health and safety is actually the most important aspect of operations in any organisation. Here’s why.

Safe workers are happy workers

Strong injury prevention guidelines can increase happiness amongst your workforce. When workers don’t have to worry about their own safety or focus an inordinate amount of time on avoiding unnecessary risks, they are usually happier to be at work.

Even in white collar environments, basic work health and safety guidelines can help improve morale. Careful focus on ergonomics can avoid long-term back problems. Compulsory breaks, investment in quality monitors and more can all help to increase the level of happiness among office employees.

Gain a competitive advantage

There are plenty of business managers lying awake at night trying desperately to determine ways they can boost their competitive advantage. However, not too many consider work health and safety as a viable option.

Businesses are run by people. Outside of the “revolutionary” strategies your marketing and sales teams drum up occasionally, there are a lot of things you can do to move the dial. Simple things like better seats, adjusting the lighting during the day, or handrails along steps can help improve employees’ day to day lives and increase productivity.

Healthy workers are hard workers. Work health and safety isn’t just about safety – it’s about health too. Get some fruit into your employees and get them out of their seats once a day. It all pays off in the long run.

Enhance public image and reputation

All major corporations have a comprehensive work health and safety policy that covers all aspects of their organisation. They have well trained OHS Officers and they take any incidents seriously.

If you want to improve your business’s reputation and public standing, as well as appear like you’re serious about growth, you need a genuine OHS policy. The public demands transparency and accountability, and the fact is, one day you’re going to need to prove that you took all reasonable steps to avoid an incident.

Take the opportunity now to develop a progressive, safe work environment that has all the hallmarks of a modern success story. It will pay off in your improved reputation – particularly as you attract a better class of employees.

Increase efficiency

Unsafe workplaces are inefficient workplaces. If there are unsafe aspects to their jobs, most employees will go to some length to avoid it. These little changes to their routines can quickly add up to a large cost to the organisation.

Particularly if no changes are made when employees report unsafe practices or simple things such as uncomfortable chairs, efficiency will drop. Whether it’s malicious, out of annoyance at not being heard, or unintentional simply through an inability to work efficiently, it will cost the company money.

It’s important to listen to your employees, take on board their feedback, and act to improve OHS standards. It will have a huge payoff in efficiency improvements.

Save stress by becoming compliant

Without a valid work health and safety policy, every day could be your last as an organisation. It simply isn’t worth the stress, cost to efficiency and reduced productivity and morale.

Additionally, the government-imposed fines and other punishments can be incredibly harsh. It is far cheaper, in the long run, to simply do the right thing and develop a clear, sensible work health and safety policy.

Need a starting point? The BSB41419 Certificate IV in Work Health and Safety has everything you need to get qualified. Call 1300 616 197 today.