| Injuries, whether on the job or not, are certainly | | | | be as much as ten times the visible cost! |
| a serious problem to the person injured. | | | | The bottom line is that it is vitally important to |
| Employee injuries on the job are a major problem | | | | businesses to have viable safety programs to |
| for many businesses. Often they are more of a | | | | protect employees from on-the-job injuries. |
| problem than the business owners realize. | | | | And there' the rub. |
| There are several reasons for this. | | | | Many companies have safety programs that |
| - They have a direct effect on the cost or | | | | should be good, but for some reason employees |
| worker's compensation insurance. Every employee | | | | still get hurt. They shouldn't - and they wouldn't if |
| injury is factored into a formula the calculate a | | | | the safety program worked like it is supposed to |
| "mod factor" for an employer. The higher the | | | | work. But it doesn't. |
| "mod" the higher the insurance premium. The | | | | For example, the safety program says that the |
| "mod" factor is based on employee injury | | | | employees should wear protective eye wear. The |
| experience for a three year period, so every | | | | employer provides safety glasses, but some of |
| claim can cause the premium to be higher for | | | | the employees don't wear their safety glasses |
| three years. | | | | unless someone is watching. |
| - Replacing an employee is expensive. If an | | | | Or, maybe, the safety program requires guards |
| employee is injured seriously enough to have to | | | | at the point of operation for machines that can |
| miss work for an extended time, the employer | | | | be dangerous. However, sometimes the guards |
| has the problem, and expense, of replacing the | | | | are removed when maintenance is done on the |
| employee. A lot of time and expense is involved | | | | machine, and they just never get replaced - until |
| in finding, interviewing, and training a new | | | | someone gets hurt using the machine. |
| employee. | | | | There are a thousand reasons why a "good" |
| - Workplace injuries have a negative affect on | | | | safety program may not be effective. And not |
| employee morale. People don't like to work in | | | | always, but usually, when you get right down to |
| places where they don't feel safe. | | | | the real underlying reason they are not effective, |
| - Employee injuries lead to lower productivity. | | | | you will find that the problem is the people, not |
| Think of the time other employees spend talking | | | | the program. Usually, it boils down to a problem of |
| about what happened and why it happened. All of | | | | character! |
| that time in unproductive time. | | | | What does that mean? Am I saying that the |
| - An injury to a key employee can have a | | | | people are not "good" people so they get hurt? |
| negative impact on customer satisfaction. When | | | | No, what I mean is that you will usually find a |
| an employee who is important in the production | | | | combination of character qualities that would have |
| process is injured, his work has to be done by | | | | to be strengthened for the safety program to |
| someone else. Usually, the someone else is not as | | | | really work effectively. |
| well qualified and may not do as good work. | | | | For example, workplace accidents are often |
| Quality may suffer. It may also take them longer, | | | | attributed to "carelessness" on the part of the |
| so a job may not be finished on time. Lower | | | | injured employee. Usually, "carelessness" is a word |
| quality and timeliness can even lead to loss of | | | | used to described things like "lack of alertness", |
| customers. | | | | "lack of attentiveness", "lack of patience", etc., all |
| - There are other cost factors that often are not | | | | of which are character qualities. |
| considered when calculating the total cost of an | | | | If you are an employer, and you really want your |
| on-the-job injury. Costs like the time for filling out | | | | safety program to be effective, the best thing |
| forms, time for someone to take the injured | | | | you can do is to work with your employees to |
| employee to the doctor, time spent in phone calls | | | | strengthen the character qualities that lead to |
| with the insurance company, etc. It has been | | | | success. |
| estimated that the true cost of an accident can | | | | |