Safety, the Leak in Your Profitability Tank-Part I

If your business is repairing live electricity transmission lines, you probably think a lot about safety! On the other hand, if you’re a retail operation, it’s probably not been front of mind until lately. Most businesses think more about safety after an obvious breach or incident…but, by then, the horse has left the barn. 

How does safety affect your ability to retain profits (or, the lack of safety allow them to leak away?) Consider these points:

• According to BLS, a worker with less than 3 months on the job (any job) was 27 times more likely to suffer a lost-time injury, when compared to a worker with 5+ years on the job.

• For one of our manufacturing clients, use of a prehire assessment resulted in a 30% reduction in 6-month hiring failures; that reduction was accompanied by a 33% reduction in lost-time injuries!

• Another client, in retail groceries, saw these results from their assessment program, after doubling the probability that a new hire would still be working on their 2-year anniversary:

Take a look at how worker’s comp ratings and costs allow your profits to leak away…it’s usually a big number, and it’s a direct hit to your bottom line!

 Using assessments to reduce early hire failure has obvious benefits beyond the potential effects on safety. The manufacturer cited above also had a 50% reduction in 2-year warranty costs, after 3 years of successfully using assessments to reduce those failures, and doubling the probability that a new hire would still be working on his six-month hire anniversary!

 Stay tuned for part II, when we will talk about directly assessing employee and job candidate safety attitudes, and using that information to guide and evaluate your safety training programs.