Consequences of poor health & safety in the workplace

According to the Department of Labor, there were 3.7 million workplace injuries and illnesses during 2008.

Employers pay £0.6 billion a week in workers' compensation wages alone, which does not include having to train replacement workers and lost productivity. Understanding the consequence of poor health and safety in the workplace can help you decide where to make improvements.

When you have workers calling out of work with illnesses or injuries, it can reduce the overall productivity of the business. When a worker is out, someone else has to his job or a replacement has to be brought in and trained. Each of these options will cost your company time and money because it will slow productivity down.

When you have a high rate of workers' compensation claims filled against your company, you may find your premiums going up. Workers' compensation is like any other insurance-styled programme.

The more claims you have, the more you are charged for the coverage. Not having a safety plan in place at your business can create an unsafe atmosphere that can cause accidents and drive the numbers of claims through the roof.

Employees who work together every day can become friends. When a work environment is unsafe because of a lack of safety or health precautions and workers become affected, it can cause the morale of the entire staff to plummet.

Low overall morale is a natural consequence of poor health and safety in the workplace. Low morale can decrease productivity and increase employee turnover rates.