Numerous small and medium-sized business owners have recognized the importance of creating safety policies that will engage employees and promote health and safety practices, ensuring occupational safety and health. Namely, reliable and people-oriented safety policies and a safe work environment are closely related to increased productivity, profit, and business success.
First, creating an environment that makes your employees feel safe and protected at work will motivate them to perform better and be more productive. Secondly, employee training and appropriately implemented safety measures and policies lead to reduced sick and disability leave costs. Finally, with a well-implemented safety program that potentially mitigates safety hazards, you eliminate chances of experiencing serious workplace incidents. This will lead to reduced costs on insurance compensations and other significant expenses that may devastate the company’s bottom line.
Safety professionals play an essential role in conducting safety inspections and assessing workplace safety risks. They create and implement sustainable, cost-effective safety policies so that businesses can thrive. Companies hire full-time managers to be in charge of conducting safety policies in compliance with OSHA standards and safety regulations, addressing existing issues related to employee health and providing valuable feedback on health and safety issues. Hiring in-house safety managers has some evident advantages we will now mention.
First, these full-time employees are able to respond swiftly to business health and safety issues and provide useful advice on the worksite whenever needed. Secondly, they are specialized in your line of business and possess extensive knowledge of various safety risks and rules and regulations specific to your industry.
However, times have changed with the economy on the decline; employers have to make severe expense cuts, and many full-time safety managers have lost their jobs. Still, companies need to find another option to ensure adequate safety management and further implementation of safety policies. As a result, many of them have started seeking independent health and safety consulting services, and they soon realized that this form of providing much-needed advice and guidance related to health and safety issues came with numerous advantages.
This article will focus on these advantages and show you why hiring an independent health and safety consultant may be crucial to achieving increased safety in the workplace and building a reputable business.
The Main Benefits of Hiring Independent Health and Safety Consultants
- Cut Costs
When you hire an in-house, full-time safety specialist, you are required to provide a monthly salary accompanied by various other benefits. This safety manager will be paid monthly, regardless of the level of engagement in tackling workplace health and safety issues. On the other hand, when you sign an annual contract with a health and safety company, you make a one-time investment to provide excellent consulting on specific safety issues. In addition, this business move will be completely tax-deductible, and you will not have any overhead expenses.
- Fresh Outside View of Your Safety Culture
When you hire an independent safety counseling company, you will get an unbiased outlook on safety culture. This will be accompanied by a fair assessment of safety issues risks that need to be addressed. As you can see, safety consultants will not be burdened with your past safety records or statistics, nor will they be interested in fixing reports so that things look better. On the contrary, they will provide essential guidelines for future safety management. They can also offer staff training to ensure the implementation of newly introduced safety measures.
This is an invaluable advantage of independent safety consultants. Especially when business owners tend to present their safety policies and measures like flawless safety management systems, ignoring some potentially harmful issues. An independent consultant will point out all the potential flaws of safety systems and offer possible improvements to meet the OSHA standards.
- They Bring Various Experiences to Your Table
In-house safety experts specialize in your line of business and can provide detailed insight into the safety issues related to your industry specifically. On the other hand, independent health and safety consultants have excelled in tackling various businesses’ safety issues, depending on clients’ needs. As such, they have acquired invaluable insight into effective health and safety measures and policies they can apply to solve similar problems in your company. High-quality safety consultants adapt to various challenges and are not bound to one specific line of business, like the construction industry. They will transfer their knowledge and experience gained in one particular project and apply it to your safety situation to reach the solution.
- They Have Years of Experience in Business and Valuable Contacts
Successful safety consultants have years of working experience in the field of health and safety. This experience is accompanied by constant learning and improving skills crucial for finding practical solutions to keep workers safe and healthy.
Contrary to this, numerous full-time managers come to these positions with no significant experience in tackling safety issues. This means that the company needs to invest in safety training and courses to keep them updated about the current tendency in safety measures and policies.
Another crucial advantage that safety consulting companies have is their contact with relevant representatives of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. They can also help in negotiating fines or other OSHA requirements. OSHA is responsible for setting health and safety standards that every company owner has to comply with by law. Having someone to help you communicate easier with this compliance organization is a major benefit.
- Cooperation With Insurance to Cut Workers’ Compensation Costs
Besides helping your company achieve safety compliance with OSHA standards, independent safety consultants will cooperate with your insurance company to considerably reduce workplace safety risks. Besides, these safety experts will help you reduce workers’ compensation premiums in case of work-related injury or illness. Namely, the Experience Modification Rate is a significant figure for insurance companies. EMR is a number these companies use to calculate the worker’s compensation premium. It is a ratio of your employee’s compensation claims and your potential for future safety incidents. The lower the EMR, the lower the compensation premium will be. Top-quality safety consulting companies will work on reducing this EMR number, which will positively affect your company’s reputation.
Emerging Tendencies in Health and Safety Consulting
These numerous benefits of hiring independent safety consultants are not the only reasons why business owners started looking for their services. As we have already mentioned, the economy is suffering due to the adverse consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some predictions say that the road to economic recovery will be long and rocky. This means that many businesses can not afford to keep health and safety specialists as full-time employees. They are laying off entire safety teams and turning to cost-effective health and safety consultants. As one safety consulting expert stated, “Businesses are forced to achieve more with less.”
These new safety consulting tendencies have incited the need for forming long-term relationships between small and mid-sized business owners and safety consultants. These long-term relationships provide companies with consistency in delivering solution-based health and safety services. At the same time, health and safety companies benefit from these relationships in terms of steady income.
For example, some small companies may hire contracted safety consultants to provide a specific service and then prolong this cooperation by extending their expertise to a number of facilities. Small and mid-sized businesses nowadays hire health and safety companies to provide overall health and safety services and to be their contact with the local OSHA office.
Final Words
This article presented you with a list of undeniable advantages of hiring a reliable safety consultant over having a full-time safety manager. Apart from evident financial benefits, these safety consultants will offer you a fresh and objective insight into your safety policy and effective training on safety procedures. They will also help you negotiate potential OSHA fines and work with your insurance company to cut workers’ compensation premiums, boost your business reputation, and attract new clients.
All these advantages and the economic decline motivated small and mid-sized businesses to turn to independent consultants for workplace safety and health-related services. This change inspired long-term relationships between business owners and safety consultants that are beneficial for both sides. Companies get much-needed consistency in implementing effective safety solutions, and health and safety consultants get a steady source of income.
Now that you are aware of the significant benefits using reputable health and safety companies, feel free to contact us by email at larry@safety4employers.com or dial 775-843-8318. Let’s talk about safety practices and training that your company can implement to meet requirements.
