1st Edition

Increasing Productivity and Profit through Health and Safety The Financial Returns from a Safe Working Environment

    208 Pages 38 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    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.

    INTRODUCTION

    ECONOMICS FOR THE NON-ECONOMIST

    INFORMATION SOURCES

    THE PRODUCTIVITY ASSESSMENT TOOL

    CASE STUDIES
    Industrial Cleaning: Safer at a Lower Cost
    Permanent or Precarious Employment? The Hospitality Industry
    Why Lift Patients When There's a Better Way? Reducing Back Injuries in the Health Industry
    Large-scale Experiments: Valuable but not Easy to Carry Out
    Manual Handling
    Personal Protectrive Clothing and Equipment
    Prevention and Rehabilitation

    NEW SUPERVISORY SYSTEMS

    ETHICS

    INSTALLING AND RUNNING THE PRODUCTIVITY ASSESSMENT TOOL

    GLOSSARY

    INDEX

    Biography

    Oxenburgh\, Maurice; Marlow\, Penelope S.P.; Oxenburgh\, Andrew

    "The core is well focused, the case studies are convincing, the model works and I, for one, will be using my interactive version of productAbility Basic at the earliest opportunity."
    - Health & Safety, HSM, April 2005

    "The book should assist any manager who wishes to win over a skeptical CEO or board that expenditure on a workplace improvement will not only reduce injury and ill health but will lead to better productivity."
    - Safeguard Magazine, March/April 2005

    "A series of case studies is … provided from a range of industry sectors and countries. … For each case study, a summary of the cost-benefit analysis is provided, showing how the payback periods were justified. … [The book] offers useful materials for students of ergonomics … ."
    - The Journal of Occupational Health & Safety, Australia and New Zealand, Vol. 20, No. 6, Dec. 2004