Author Bio:
Holly is part of the content team at Engage EHS. Holly has worked in the health and safety industry since graduating from university. When not writing about health and safety practices, Holly can be found researching new travel locations.
The impact of health & safety knowledge on your job search
The strategic goal of all businesses is to make a profit and ensure better performance. A better understanding of the role of safety performance in the industry is as important as having academic qualifications and meeting job requirements listed by the employer during a job search. Corporate responsibility for health and safety should be accepted, and managers should become proactive in developing a positive safety culture for their workplaces. Since some workplaces are hazardous or a threat to the health and safety of the employees, they need to have some expertise on safety issues. They require safety knowledge to provide a solid background on how to make workplaces safe. This knowledge can be accessed from training, seminars, workshops, and programmes that offer health and safety education, which has proved to be a practical approach towards securing a dream job. This knowledge is beneficial in various ways:
Enhances positive company reputation
Standard working places that ensure health and safety protocols create a positive reputation for the company. This guarantees employee welfare is in the company’s best interests. It also boosts the performance of the organisation since that of the employees is not interrupted. The organisation also stands a chance of decreasing the cost of covering employee absence in case they are faced with health and safety problems.
“Directors must have an understanding of the role safety performance plays in the performance of their business. In accepting corporate responsibility for health and safety, directors need to be proactive in developing a positive safety culture for their workplace. In the long term, this leads to an internal cultural shift that can have an indirect impact on external brand affinity and brand loyalty,” says David Rowland, head of marketing at health and safety software provider Engage EHS.
Increased employee productivity
This is achieved by having a manager who is trained in auditing health and safety who can check for discomforts at workplaces. Such discomforts can lead to employee productivity. The ability to identify discomfort allows the company to act to ensure that all employees are comfortable while they are in their working environment. They feel secure in a safe environment and thus produce high-quality work, which improves productivity and encourages company loyalty.
Legacy to employers
Employees who take positions in companies that lack awareness of laws that govern health and safety in workplaces could be a useful asset if they have knowledge to share. They can leave a lasting legacy by being responsible for training employees and ensuring systems that manage health and safety in the company.
Cost reduction
Knowledge in health and safety is beneficial as it provides an opportunity to cut costs, reducing reliance on third-party agencies to orient employees on health and safety.
Insurance premiums
A company could minimise health insurance premiums if its employees are trained and aware of health and safety measures and thus are less likely to claim in case of any injury. The company is also in a position to establish preventative measures to protect both the health and the safety of the workers, since both the manager and employees have the knowledge and can offer protection through the implementation of procedures that will reduce the chances of injury and claims.
In essence, knowledge of health and safety should be offered to all since the benefits are tied to both the employee and the employer.
