Stretching Your Safety Program’s Budget In A Tight Economy

With the current economy in turmoil, companies are cutting expenses and tightening budgets across the board. Safety programs are certainly not immune from these cutbacks but there are things you can do as a safety trainer to keep from getting the dreaded axe.

When times get tight, there’s no question that a lot of programs within a company can be greatly affected. Some are trimmed down, and some are dropped outright if they don’t appear to help the bottom line of profits and loss in a clear and direct way.

For some executives, safety training can fall into this grey area of necessity and value and it’s often one of the programs with a bullseye on it. But cutting safety programs can be a risky venture.

Being a safety professional, you know perhaps better than anyone, that with the upset in the economy, the threat of job loss, and other distractions, a worker’s ability to stay focused is greatly challenged. Simply put, workers get distracted with all of this chaos around them and distractions often result in accidents.

Injured workers create a huge burden on a company because some of these folks are not easily replaced. Add to that, the increasing cost and potential of compensation claims and you have a recipe for major problems.

This is a challenging time when safety trainers and professionals must stand up and be vigilent in reminding those in charge, that the costs and risks of cutting back on safety awareness and training can be very high. It is a role of the dice to ignore this fact.

Show, as best you can, that your programs are cost effective. Use supportive data when it’s available. Highlight the cost efficient strategies that are being used to train the workforce currently and ways that you can perhaps reduce costs even more without losing the established momentum of your current program.

Now is the time for creativity in training and guiding the company in safety.

Look within your employees.

No one knows the job situation, the risks, and the demands any more than your employees do. They truly are the experts when it comes what it takes to do a particular job.

If budget cuts make it more challenging to bring in professional trainers, look to your employees as your new and powerful training resource. Pick out individuals who have the ability and comfort level to talk to a group. They need to have a basic knowledge of the work environment and like to teach. Focusing on these employees, and recruiting them for training may help bring more volunteers into your training force later on. Be sure to spend time working with them, and supporting them with constructive feedback.

He Who Sells…Wins

Up to now, you are likely the one who’s had to pitch the benefits of a good safety program. Don’t expect that to change. In fact, when company owners are looking for any way, shape, or form, to hang on to the bottom line, you’ll need to be ready to hear their commentary on cost cutting in your program.

Prepare yourself ahead of time with facts and figures that prove the value to the business and to the safety of your employees. Highlight both positive and negative instances if they’ve taken place as a way to not only reinforce what’s worked but that more focus needs to be giving to safety to continue to reduce incidents. Real people are protected when safety programs are focused on and implemented.

Finally, keep in mind, there is likely no one in your current organization that will stand behind and encourage others to follow safety standards any more than you will. You are the cheerleader for the company. It’s important to work constructively to get the backing and support of company leadership as well as influential workers on the floor.

As it always is, the key to getting the results in any safety program will come down less to dollars and cents, and more to good use of common sense backed with some consistent attention and enthusiasm by everyone in the company.

No related posts.