Increasing Productivity and Profit Through Health and Safety : The Financial Returns From a Safe Working Environment

In all workplaces the health and safety of employees is closely linked with the company's profitability. Human resource strategies for improving the health and safety of people in the workplace do not necessarily cost money - in fact they usually save money. A practical book based on the authors' combined consultancy experience, Increasing Productivity and Profit Through Health and Safety shows readers how they can use ergonomics to make money for their organizations. Richly illustrated with a range of case studies drawn from heavy industry, retail sales, hospitals, hotels, and call centers, the book outlines universal concepts that can be used in any workplace. Included with the book is a CD-ROM that contains a simple but sophisticated working cost-benefit analysis model. This model enables readers to input their own data, which will help them make the case for implementing workplace health, safety, and ergonomics programs. For the non-expert there is a chapter that explains economics concepts and models using 'non-economics' language. Human resource personnel, physicians, safety and risk management specialists, trainers, and ergonomists as well as business managers and engineers will find this book to be a powerful support tool for developing and implementing workplace improvements. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 About the authors......Page 7 Foreword......Page 9 Acknowledgements......Page 11 Introduction......Page 14 Economics for the non-economist......Page 21 Information sources......Page 52 The Productivity Assessment Tool......Page 65 Case studies......Page 82 Industrial cleaning: safer at a lower cost......Page 87 Permanent or precarious employment? The hospitality industry......Page 97 Why lift patients when there's a better way? Reducing back injuries in the health industry......Page 105 Large-scale experiments: valuable but not easy to carry out......Page 112 Manual handling......Page 122 Personal protective clothing and equipment......Page 135 Prevention and rehabilitation......Page 145 New supervisory systems......Page 153 Ethics......Page 176 Installing and running the Productivity Assessment Tool......Page 189 Glossary......Page 191 Index......Page 198 This book is designed around human resource strategies and illustrated through case studies, which explain the effectiveness of ergonomics on productivity and profit, both for the employees (a safer and more congenial working environment) and the enterprises (better return on investment).