You don't think of safety as an employee benefit? Reconsider it.
Health insurance provides medical care in the event of disease or injury off the job. Workers' compensation covers post‑injury and illness medical costs on the job, and short‑term and long‑term disability react to injury or illness that occur off the job.
Employers now add gym memberships and preventative medicine as benefits; for a related perspective, see Enhancing Employee Health through Insurance and Gym Memberships.
Why not preventative measures for on‑the‑job injuries as a benefit? Get your employees home safe after each shift — a great benefit for their families and themselves.
How do you institute a safety policy as a benefit?
- Make a corporate‑wide decision that safety is a core ethic. Top management must embrace and lead the effort.
- Safety meetings do not require time wasting. Create brief topics, under five minutes, that can be incorporated in every shift meeting; for example, proper use of protective eyewear or how to fit a hard hat.
- Reducing the number of injuries on the job is a cost savings. Having a well‑known safety record, or more important a safety ethic, helps attract the best professional employees.
- Reducing the severity of claims — think protective eyewear — saves the company a fortune. Insurance underwriters view injury frequency as more vital than severity in predicting costs. Safety awareness decreases frequency; proper equipment and techniques decrease severity.
- Communicate the human value of safety to your employees. Tell them how much money you spend on safety every year, and if you are not already doing so, communicate to each employee how much all their benefits cost the company; see Understanding Employee Benefits and Insurance Options.
Safety is the number one benefit you can offer. Believe it to your core and live it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How quickly can a company start treating safety as a benefit?
You can start immediately by making safety a visible priority: leadership statements, brief shift‑level talks, and basic protective equipment distribution go a long way.
What are simple safety actions that show employees the company cares?
Providing and enforcing proper personal protective equipment, holding short safety briefings, and reporting improvements transparently are effective and visible steps.
Will improving safety really reduce insurance costs?
Improving safety typically reduces injury frequency and severity, which can lower claims and influence insurance underwriting over time.
How should safety training be delivered to shift workers?
Keep training short, focused, and repeated regularly — five‑minute topics at shift change are often the most practical and effective.