Do you care about safety? Do you care about employee morale?
If you said no to the first question, you shouldn’t be leading a business. If you said yes to the second, well, at least there is hope for a safer workplace.
Industrial safety and ergonomic programs have been around for decades, but they often require high initial investments that take a long time to pay off – although they do pay off in reduced injuries, fatalities, lower employee turnover and savings in workers’ compensation insurance premiums.
Artificial Intelligence solutions can drastically reduce that initial investment and the time it takes for interventions to secure a safer environment for your workforce. Injuries could decline by more than 50% – and as a result, employee morale will not take a hit – and your workers’ compensation insurance premiums could decline by up to 40%.
According to the National Safety Council, work injuries cost $167 billion in 2021 – $1.34 million per death and $42,000 per medically consulted injury. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 5,190 fatal work injuries in 2021 – meaning an employee died every 101 minutes.
That’s unacceptable.
Face it, many industrial “accidents” are preventable. Beyond the deadly consequences for your workforce, severe incidents can damage your brand for decades. And even minor injuries have a negative impact on morale.
Even accidents that don’t make national headlines destroy morale and productivity. No matter their economic situation, how many employees want to show up at a worksite where their colleagues were killed?
I’ve heard numerous stories about workplace accidents that have ruined companies for months or years. You think it can’t happen, but when it does, your workers are thinking: “Doris always had a smile on her face and was full of life, and now she’s gone. I not only don’t want to do her job; I don’t want to go down that aisle or even get near a forklift.”
Work should not hurt, and it certainly shouldn’t kill.
In the case of workplace safety, avoidance is your goal – safe workplaces rarely make headlines. Safety programs have progressed far beyond EHS software, telematics, wearables and video analytics. I would love to discuss how new artificial intelligence solutions can help keep your employees safe and productive.
Jim Tompkins, Chairman of Tompkins Ventures, is an international authority on designing and implementing end-to-end supply chains. Over five decades, he has designed countless industrial facilities and supply chain solutions, enhancing the growth of numerous companies. He previously built Tompkins International from a backyard startup into an international consulting and implementation firm. Jim earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University.