Workplace health and safety is much more than providing first aid stations and manual handling training. There are severe penalties for poor oversight when it comes to physical and mental harm. But your business will also suffer without EDI controls and characteristic protections.

Serious Legal and Financial Implications

The fallout from health and safety problems can be severe. Issues can impact the lives of others as well as your personal business life. Trauma, mental and physical, or lack of protection, will have serious consequences. Legally and financially, your business may never recover, and even if it does, your reputation will be tarnished. Any personal injury lawyer worth hiring will put together a strong case if it is true that your company didn’t do all it could to protect workers.

Loss of Professional Reputation

Your business might be able to pay settlements and legal fees when found guilty of health and safety violations. Insurance might even cover most issues. However, all the money in the world cannot recover a tarnished reputation. Media coverage of a case will make things worse. Word will still get out about poor handling of employees, mistreatment, or lack of basic human rights. Morally and ethically, you owe it to workers to make the business as safe as possible.

Ethical Workplace Health and Safety

There are many ethical violations at work all the time. Assault alone is a problem at work. 11% of women and 12% of men experience violence or harassment in the workplace. Health and safety extends to protecting the characteristics of your employees. This includes gender protection. But extends to the protection of religious beliefs, cultural sensitivity, sexual orientation, and gender identification. Shifting workplace culture and education are great ways to deal with these issues.

Leading the Team by Example

All roads usually lead to a lack of workplace health and safety for senior staff members. As a business owner, CEO, or manager, you are in a powerful position to set an example. Imagine if a manager is toxic at work and doesn’t respect women. Employees under them might see this as a way to treat others. And so on. This kind of culture spreads and infects workplaces. A culture of respect for everyone from the top down promotes a healthy workplace for all staff members.

Equality, Inclusion, and Diversity Issues

EDI at work is a major topic right now. And there are good reasons for this. No one should have to feel unsafe at work because they feel unequal or excluded for personal characteristics. All workers have the right to feel safe both physically and mentally. Education about some of the most serious issues and outdated attitudes is a great start. Simply highlighting improper behaviour can be enough to change how people think and act in certain workplace situations.

Summary

There are serious legal, financial , and reputational implications for neglecting workplace health and safety. More than physical safety, this also extends to ethical issues such as harassment because of personal characteristics. These can be protected with EDI education at work.