The Importance of Health & Safety in the Workplace [4 Reasons]

As most companies prepare to go back to their usual workplaces, it is the perfect opportunity to remind you of the importance of health and safety in the workplace. Health and safety aren’t limited to preventing the transmission of the Covid-19 virus, although these days this is the top priority for office buildings and workplaces, since office workers are at a high risk of being exposed to the virus. 

You should also take the high incidence of injuries at the workplace into account when trying to create a safe and healthy work environment. Despite all the technological advances in today’s business world, it may come as a surprise to learn that people still get injured on the job. This isn’t a rare occurrence either. 

According to the latest report by the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2018 there were 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses. 900,380 of these caused a worker to miss at least one day of work, with 333,830 instances requiring a visit to a medical facility. 

The effect of an injured or sick employee in a large company might be negligible, but when you own a small business that depends on every one of their workers, having anyone missing a full day of work can be a disaster. For solopreneurs the stakes are considerably higher, every single hour lost due to sickness or injury means that their business is completely shut down for that same period of time. 

If a worker gets infected with the Covid-19 virus this means that at the very least they will have to stay quarantined at home for a minimum 15 days, and up to several months in the hospital in severe cases. So it makes sense to have strict protocols in place to prevent the spread of the disease. 

But the importance of health and safety measures in the workplace goes well beyond lost man-hours and trips to the emergency room. There are many reasons to provide your workers with a safe and healthy environment such as:

1. Increased productivity

Safety in the workplace leads to healthy employees, and these in turn perform tasks more efficiently and create a happy work environment for all. A healthy environment also leads to a reduction in operational costs. 

2. Stress reduction

Working in an unsafe and unhealthy environment makes you feel very stressed. The moment you get in to the end of your shift you are constantly reminded of the dangers surrounding you. This state of constant worry used to be exclusive to some dangerous workplaces such as working at a mine or in construction, but these days this stress is felt by office workers too due to the fear of becoming sick with the Covid-19 themselves or transmitting it to their families. That’s why it is important that workers feel that their workplace is taking the necessary precautions to limit their exposure. 

3. Increased quality of products and services

If you take care of your employees’ safety and health needs this frees up their head space and allows them to not only be more productive, but also to increase the quality of their work. By focusing on creating a safe work environment it makes it easier for your company to thrive. 

4. Attracts new talent

When looking to grow your team, something every candidate will be looking at is the atmosphere in your workplace. Do people look happy or miserable? Is everything clean and in order, or is your workplace a health hazard? Easy access to sanitizing gel and cleaning wipes to disinfect work areas? Is everyone wearing a face mask? Having a safe, healthy environment can help you attract new talent to your company.

In Conclusion?

Making sure that you are providing your employees with a healthy and safe workplace is a very important factor for the success of your company. The easiest way to go about this is to choose a workplace that already has all the safety and health measures in place so your employees can always feel comfortable and do their best work. In our modern world there are a number of solutions you can take advantage of such as coworking spaces, private offices, fully equipped meeting and conference rooms, as well as helping your employees to set up a fully equipped home office. So there really is no excuse for neglecting safety in the workplace. 

About Andrés Sanjose

Andrés Sanjose is a writer and editor based in Guatemala. He previously lived in Berlin for 10 years where he witnessed the birth and amazing evolution of the Virtual Office phenomenon, while working as a freelancer in the german capital. He is very interested in what the future holds for this exciting industry and loves to write about it.