James Skrabak is head of corporate health and safety at CDM Smith. He is a certified industrial hygienist, his job is but not limited to assessing physical and chemical hazards to people in the workplace, as well as analyzing the business issues which come from industrial accidents, and the upside of minimizing them.
Direct and Indirect Costs:
Industrial accidents have two cost to the company they are categorized as direct and indirect. Direct costs to a business include medical cost since most expenses are paid out of pocket to avoid having to pay the high deductible may come from an insurance claim. Next is lost work, once an accident occurs a site may be closed for a substantial time while the accident is investigated or cleaned up. Lastly is equipment loss, in some cases equipment failure leads to an industrial accident, such as crane failure and the direct loss of equipment falls upon the business.
The next category of cost in accidents is the indirect cost which in most cases is 4-5 times greater than the direct costs. They include accident investigation which occurs to see where and how the accident occurred and whether OSHA standards are being upheld at the site, next is production delay since the whole schedule will be pushed back after an accident. Next, is training a replacement if a employee cannot return to work after an accident another must take their place this includes training and the cost of time lost doing this. Finally could be insurance premium which will undoubtedly rise if a claim has to be made after an accident.
The Indirect cost of an industrial accident are those which are not covered by insurance, they must be paid out of pocket and most often come out of the profit a project would be producing.
Why is Safety so important to businesses:
First of all you have to understand that firms are hired to solve problems not to cause them, a firm which has a strong safety record is desirable to an prospective client because it will most likely have the project occur smoothly without incident. Next is the EMR rating which is given to firms and is a rating of their safety history by insurer. Firms which have a lower more desirable EMR rating are often able to place lower bids because of lower insurance cost and in turn they become more competitive in the marketplace. Knowing this you can see that maintain a safe work site can be beneficial in the present and the future.
Responsibilities:
At worksite there are normally 4 major parties, they include: The construction manager, designers, contractor, and client, each have responsibilities during the extent of the project which are as follows.
CM:
- Stay on schedule and within budget
- Avoid “schedule pressuring”
- Meet quality goals
- don’t get anyone hurt
Design:
- Know and meet codes
- use proper material
- provide proper security
- Consider using prefab materials
- Safety Designed into project (tie off points)
Contractor;
- Proper training of employees
- using proper equipment
Client:
- Setting the tone for the project
- Informing all others of hazards
- monitoring performance
Conclusion
After this discussion understanding the importance of safety for not only human safety but for business and economics purposes can be understood. By following simple standards set out by OSHA and fulfilling simple responsibilities of the role you are playing at a work site the cost and time of a project can be reduced. The most important thing is to teach people is to work smart, 9 in 10 accidents are caused by human error not because of lack of standards. If we can reduce these mistakes in the businesses we work at in the future we can increase safety for our fellow employees and increase the ability of company to compete in the marketplace.