This article was made possible by M2Sys Technology is a global biometric identification management company
How do you take the term “workplace safety”? It may carry a lot of meanings- a working facility that causes no physical harm, or a work collaboration where no one would deliberately hurt you. It can even portray a certain part of the company’s operation.
Definition of workplace safety
Compare workplace safety with the concept of skydiving, where you have to drop off of the aeroplane and go as far as possible before deploying the parachute. Like skydiving, you have to work in high-risk environments without fear to reach high-return goals.
Upon reaching the ground, you will focus on your purpose without worrying about the environments’ external elements, and safety will provide your rooms for attaining your objectives. In short, safety will help you reach the goals and give you space to live and learn as well.
Definition of productivity
You have learned the definition of workplace safety- so lets’ talk about productivity. Productivity is like jumping from an aeroplane with all safety equipment, with the knowledge of action for anything gone wrong. It also requires putting fear aside and attempt to land successfully. In short, productivity defines the collective results of employee activities in a specific period. Having said that, being a productive employee at work depends on the persons’ productivity level. You have to check if you are working on the right things or if you can work on the given tasks without getting distracted or interrupted for 5 minutes. The productivity of an on-site or distributed workforce also relies on work environment safety. A safe environment is also a healthy environment where joint teams or distributed workforce work together to improve safety by being a good person to each other.
The correlation between workplace safety and productivity
In 2018, there were 13.4 million active workers in Australia, of which 4.2% experienced their most recent work-injury- as found by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Approximately 84% of all injured persons continued to work at the same place, 7% changed their jobs, and 9% were out of work on the given week.
It’s visible that injuries and the lack of safety immediately hamper productivity. Of all the 563,600 injured persons, 42% took one to four days off, 16% took five to ten days off, and 6% did not return to work due to serious injury or illness.
How does safety influence overall productivity?
1. Safety reduces wasted hour
Workers are the upmost part of holding productivity at the optimal level. A business or industry can only reduce the chance of physical injury by providing a safe work environment and by giving easy access to health services. This way, employees can attend to work without any fear of physical damage and mental pressure, which translates to higher working hours.
2. It encourages both on-site and distributed workforce to be more involved
Employees stop reporting to work when they don’t feel safe to be there. On the contrary, employees will go the extra mile to match the needed work if they find the presence of the necessary safety measurements and support at work. They will also show their loyalty to the employer and try to contribute to the company culture.
3. Safety promotes the organisation and its efficiency
By focusing on the people at work and the culture-building activities, a business can promote productivity inside the firm. It is because safety programs help to establish the right behaviour and encourage collaboration among different teams and business units. Such an order will help to adopt meaningful strategies for the business and inspire both the on-site and distributed workforce to be accountable as well.
4. It proves the culture of caring
Safety assurance activities focus on the existence of individual employees. They provide self-confidence, a higher trust level, and commitment building capacity to the employees, which are necessary for improved productivity of the business.
How a lack of safety result in downgrade productivity?
If you go deep to understand the connection between safety and productivity, you will see that safety works for all sides. No matter what some employers think, the lack of safety assurance will always undermine employee productivity and harm the business.
Safety is more about ensuring that on-site and distributed workforce can go home safely, rather than the absence of accidents at work. Any loss will not only affect the damage and recovery time of employees but also result in a personal loss for the employees and their friends/families.
Tool to manage workplace safety
Safety Assure helps companies establish a safer workplace without the administrative burden. Our easy-to-use mobile app enables your employees to log incidents, accidents, near misses, and observations with ease and wherever these events are noticed. Complying with safety standards to avoid penalties and lower operational costs have never been easier!
Whether some people agree or not, the discussion on workplace safety and its relation to productivity will always exist. Or at least for the time before a leadership comes that promotes proper safety and increases awareness.
