According to the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), accidents in the New Zealand workplace cost them upwards of $968,565,574 in claims in 2022. This figure indicates the enormous cost of workplace injuries – both financially and socially in New Zealand workplaces.
In a perfect world, we would all come home safely from work every day. Unfortunately, this is not the case; it is estimated that in the year to date (2023), there have already been around 23,000 new workplace injury claims filed.
No one factor can ensure you provide a safe workplace for your employees and customers – so a multifaceted approach is essential to promoting well-being and preventing workplace injuries.
So what does this mean for your business? And what are the financial benefits of putting robust Health & Safety processes in place to protect your employees and those who visit your promises for meetings, to purchase goods, or as consultants?
Here we will discuss how preventing workplace injuries can ensure you are not losing money due to unsafe work practices. We will also talk about the interconnected factors that are targeted by our incident investigation services when you call us to help you get through the investigation process required by law when you are dealing with a workplace injury.
Read on to better understand a few of the wholly and less tangible costs to your business when someone is injured at your workplace.
Insurance Costs
One of the more tangible benefits your business will access if you can prevent workplace injuries is to keep your ACC experience rating levies and insurance premiums low. When businesses start to clock up a history of accidents, premiums will likely rise significantly.
Using an expert incident investigation service and a robust Health & Safety plan, a proactive approach to workplace safety will demonstrate to your insurance provider that you are committed to ensuring your workplace remains incident-free.
Legal Fines & Penalties
The financial repercussions of being found non-compliant regarding health and safety can be substantial. While industry fines may vary, you could also open yourself up to further costly legal ramifications.
Prevention is key, and by ensuring that good communication, informed leadership and correct resourcing are all in place, you should avoid legal entanglements and associated financial burdens.
A major factor towards preventing repeat accidents is to undertake a proper root-cause analysis of the steps that led up to the accident, and this will be more thorough if it is outsourced to professional incident investigation services.
Compensation Costs
If your valued team member ends up with a serious injury on your premises, there will likely be medical costs, and they will need to take time off work. While ACC is liable for 80% of their lost earnings, that doesn’t account for the loss in productivity your business may suffer if an essential worker is suddenly unable to cover their usual tasks.
In addition to losing your experienced worker, you may need to foot the bill for temporary cover, which has the knock-on effect of increased health and safety risks in the workplace with an inexperienced worker in the mix.
This can have ongoing ramifications and may cost you in unexpected staff training. You may even need to shuffle your entire team around to cover the work your injured employee would normally get done in the course of a day.
You will likely need to pay for overtime hours to make up for the shortfall created, and there could be issues with stress on other staff due to the increased workload – and due to their having witnessed a serious incident.
Using a professional Health & Safety Consultant will formalise incident investigation services. This will ensure your company takes a thorough look at the incident, and the activities surrounding the incident when it occurred, to help you understand exactly what happened and to prevent it from happening again.
Protecting Your Brand
Your employees are your greatest asset when it comes to getting information about your brand out into the community. If your workers feel that they are being properly cared for, you are more likely to gain and maintain a good reputation in your community.
Investing in incident investigation services allows your team to see that you care about protecting them from future injuries.
Accident Investigation Services
Engaging with an external incident investigator means that you have a neutral party onsite to deal with the processes you are required to complete in case of a workplace injury.
At Smart Safety Solutions, our team are trained to handle the entire process, from gathering evidence to support the investigation, conducting witness interviews, and writing the report. We will analyse all the data we collect for you, and we can correctly write up the report and pass it to the relevant authorities.
Although there is never an upside to a workplace injury, using formal incident investigation services ensures a thorough investigation. There are always learnings to be taken on board and valuable lessons around processes and systems which could prevent further injuries.
Professional incident investigation services will look at the equipment, the job, the task, and the procedures in order to be able to provide guidance towards preventing future incidents.
Smart Safety Solutions
At Smart Safety Solutions, we ensure you are best placed to prevent workplace injuries. Our expert processes will help you to safeguard the ongoing health and safety of your employees – and anyone else that visits your business. This promotes peace of mind, a more relaxed workplace, and smoother running all around.
Your business will enjoy long-term growth and financial success by reducing insurance costs, minimising future harm, avoiding costly fines, and ensuring strong productivity and a good reputation.
Get In Touch
Get in touch with one of our expert health and safety consulting services today to discuss preventing financial losses caused by workplace injuries.