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Tackling certain health and safety issues in your workplace could help you minimise your insurance claims and could keep the cost of premiums down.
In fact you might find that your insurance company asks you to make specific changes to your business to meet Health and Safety Executive regulations before they’ll cover you.
Make no mistake, it can be well worth making any changes recommended by your insurer, especially when the latest figures from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) estimates that more than 24 million workdays are lost each year by firms failing to implement basic health and safety procedures.
The same survey also revealed that workplace accidents are costing UK businesses about £2.5 billion in lost trade every year. Meanwhile the Health and Safety Executive estimates the average cost to a business of the serious injury of an employee is somewhere between £17,000 and £19,000.
- All businesses with five or more employees need to set up a written health and safety policy and a health and safety management system.
- This is the first step towards making sure your workplace is safe for you and your employees. Even if your business seems to be relatively hazard free there will still be issues that need to be addressed, such as keeping fire exits clear.
- Make sure employees are involved in creating your health and safety policy and that they’re given a copy of the document. The policy should make it clear exactly who’s responsible for every aspect of health and safety.
- You should also carry out a health and safety risk assessment. This will involve putting into place prevention and control measures once you’ve identified any hazards.
- Revise your health and safety policy regularly; your business situation may well change.
- Do what’s necessary to make sure the policy is being followed and discipline employees that violate the policy.
- Make it clear to your insurer exactly what measures you’ve taken to reduce the risk in your workplace and produce all the necessary documentation. It could help you keep your insurance premiums down.
The Workplace Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations 1992 list the minimum safety requirements for any premises that are used for a place of work. You’ll find more at: http://www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si1992/Uksi_19923004_en_1.htm
If you want to estimate the costs your business could run up from not managing health and safety adequately, visit:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/costs/index.asp
For more on writing a health and safety policy for your business get hold of the HSE’s free leaflet – 'Starting your business: Guidance on preparing a health and safety policy document for small firms' at http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg324.pdf
For more information on preventing accidents in the workplace, visit the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents - http://www.rospa.org.uk to find your local health and safety group.
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