You Need to Protect Your Staff! Here’s Why

Picture Source

As a business owner, you should make protecting your employees one of your top priorities. There are a number of reasons to do this that range from moral and ethical to financial and legal. We’re going to examine some of these issues in the hope that it will help you protect your small business and run it effectively. Let’s start off with the biggest issue and that is, of course, the legal side of why you should protect your staff.

Legal Ramifications

If you don’t look after your employees, you may end up on the wrong side of a PI complaint. An employee could be injured at work, in the office or an industrial factory. At that point, you could be found legally responsible for the accident and any costs the victim faces. That could be paying for their time off work or paying for them not being able to work ever again. It will, of course, depend on the severity of the incident. As well this you be aware that ignorance is not an excuse. Claiming you knew nothing about the hazard that caused the accident may not be a valid defense. Particularly, if the tribunal finds that you should have been aware of the hazard. It is also possible and highly likely that this case does not go to court. Instead, you will settle outside of the courtroom.

Financial Issues

The cost of this type of case could be anything from a couple of thousand to half a million in damages. For a small business such as yours, this could quite possibly be a death sentence. To avoid this, we suggest that you arrange workers compensation coverage for your company. This means that you will be covered if anything happens to any employee on your premises. Your insurance provider will pay whatever damages you face.

You may also want to make sure that the health and safety standards in your business are up to date. Health and Safety seminars with Peninsula might provide the key information you need to protect your company. They are run by a team of highly skilled HR consultants who know how to make sure a business like yours is covered. It’s also a wise move to keep your staff well trained. If they can prevent a hazard from occurring it could ultimately end up saving you a fortune. Not everything is covered by workers compensation, and you need to think about the worst case scenario.

Big Benefits

Finally, it’s important to think about how else keeping your employees safe could benefit you and your business. Firstly, we should mention that by keeping health and safety standards high, your business will be attractive to new investors. They will see your business is run professionally and will be willing to take a chance on a growing company. You may also find that your workers are more efficient. It’s a fallacy that workers try to get injured on the job. The majority don’t want an injury even with the possibility of winning damages. They just want to feel safe at work.