May is Electrical Safety Month – Embrace Safety to Increase Profits

According to the Senate Resolution, thousands of deaths and injuries can be prevented each year by following basic electrical safety precautions. Additionally, companies can reduce some of the 1.6 billion dollars of property damage incurred each year by incorporating electrical safety practices and devices into their procedures. While some companies are slowly seeing the financial benefits of investing in safety, other companies view safety as an encumbering and expensive task. This view exists despite the ample evidence in recent years suggesting that by making safety a priority, companies will not only reduce expenditures but they will actually increase sales and profits.

One example exists in a study done by The Department of Labor and Industry Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that was published in 2007. The study focused on a multi-national company with more than 100 employees that manufactures press-sensitive films and labels for the automotive, health, beauty, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. The study found that investments in safety not only decreased expenditures but it also improved the bottom line for this Minnesota company. The benefits were seen in increased employee productivity, improved product quality, and lower workers’ compensation premiums. The company began this venture in 1999 by implementing a new health and safety program. >From the years 2001 through 2005, the company experienced a 7.5% increase in sales and reduced manufacturing defects and waste expenditures by more than 83% (from $2.7M in 2001 to $435K in 2005).

In addition to the financial benefits, the company also experienced a reduction in OSHA citations. In 1997, the company was given 14 citations. After approximately two years of the new health and safety program, the company was revisited by two OSHA auditors for a period of five days in 2002. The auditors issued no citations. These financial and procedural accomplishments were attributed to the proactive stance the company took toward safety.

“While the tide is turning on how companies view safety,” says Phil Allen, President of Grace Engineered Products, a company that manufactures electrical safety devices, “it is important to remember – especially during National Electrical Safety Month - that incorporating safety is necessary because there are people involved. I heard someone put it this way: ‘People who come to work should go home to their families and loved ones in the same condition as when they arrived.’ That is the real value to companies, I think, when they can return husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, to their loved ones in the same condition as when they arrived. Improving the bottom line is a bonus.”