AUSTIN, Texas--One trend that evolves constantly is safety.
“(Safety) has become a big deal in our lives,” said Dale Lesinski, vice president, sales and marketing, Dival Safety Equipment Inc., during his keynote presentation during the Rubber Roller Group's annual meeting held recently in Austin.
“And we've seen safety evolve significantly in our work lives.”
Why is safety such a big deal? It's about money, Lesinski said, and safety impacts money.
“Accidents damage assets, physical assets: machinery, equipment, property. But more importantly, their human assets,” he said.
While companies do not want anyone to get hurt, companies incur a cost when employees do get hurt. There is the possibility of lawsuits. Lesinski said there were three messages on his cup of coffee that morning warning him about his coffee being hot, all to prevent a lawsuit.
Workers compensation and insurance costs are factors that companies must consider. Additionally, there is a new reason why safety is so important: lost customers.
“When companies do business with other companies, they are choosing business partners. And there's a lot of criteria that goes into that decision,” Lesinski said.
When choosing a partner, a company thinks about cost of goods, delivery times and quality; however safety performance now tops that list, Lesinski said, “because how you treat your human assets is a leading indicator to what type of business partner you're teaming up with.
“Safety impacts the bottom line.”
When a company says safety is its No. 1 priority, it's expressing its values, Lesinski said. While a company exists to make money, it can only do that if it does it safely.