Why should your Company use Independent Safety Consultants!
Written by Douglas P. Skinner, MPA, NRP
It should be your goal to achieve a safe working environment, to assure your company is compliant with OSHA and national best practice safety standards. Safety Consultants are the designated person(s) tasked to give advice and training regarding the safety of workers in the construction site or manufacturing location. A consultant can also help you come up with solutions on how to optimize or improve the workplace safety, and avoid accidents. Safety consultants have the responsibility of developing and implementing safety programs for the company. They are also responsible for training the employees on safety specific tasks, and to help train your supervisors that are assigned to different posts in the working area to help promote health and safety practices among the other employees.
Are Independent Safety Consultants Beneficial?
Independent Safety Consultants have proven to be more beneficial for many companies. They provide a professional view that is outside the culture of your company. Yes culture! The culture of a company is a great asset for many companies and for a well-managed and profitable company it is what everyone looks to see when doing business with that company. Unfortunately, there are companies that build exclusive internalized cultured organizations that seems to be outside best business practice. Companies who have undertaken this exclusive cultural process may find it is not beneficial for the company, employees, and clients.
Independent Safety Consultants can provide a different view of a company’s culture. This view can be beneficial to the company as well as the company’s clients. Like many industries, many companies use outside groups to set best practices programs and provide accreditation to assure their clients that the companies are acting like a professional group and have good credentials to provide proper business practices. It is important for all companies to stay profitable to assure safety practices are followed for the specific industries standards. It is advantageous for any company to look at the benefits (see below) of using an Independent Safety Consultant or Professional, for these benefits provide a broad breath of positive benefits and assets to help any company be compliant with the national OSHA standards as well as provide financial benefits.
What are the benefits of hiring Independent Safety Consultants?
- Independent Safety Consultants are not bogged down by your company’s internal affairs, nor are they influenced by your past safety record. Additionally, independent consultants have no influences upon them to alter reports just to make your company look good.
- Hiring consultants for specific one time or episodic needs. Only pay for what you need.
- No paying long-term benefits for in house safety personnel.
- Cost of contractors can be a 100% business expense which is tax deductible for a company.
- Overall cost is lower to hire Independent Safety Consultants verses hiring an in-house safety person.
- You will reduce overhead costs.
- Independent Safety Consultants give you flexibility in the relationship to schedule specific functions for safety.
- They bring accreditations, certification and experience that in-house personnel may not have or will be costly for the company to maintain for their personnel.
- Can provide an experienced person who can work with OSHA to negotiate fines, should your company need.
- Independent Safety Consultants can provide annual service contracts to provide better savings, instead of straight payment such as payroll and benefits for employee costs.
- They can provide an ala-carte process for services and training programs. Allowing the company to pick and choose services provided, thus saving money from paying for in-house safety personnel that may not be used all the time while on the payroll.
- Independent Safety Consultants bring their experiences, to help your company obtain and sustain best practices for your industry.
- They keep themselves updated with the latest safety measures, training, and certifications.
Additional Benefits of using an Independent Safety Consultant
- Independent Safety Consultants provide an outside look that is independent of the company, to be transparent during OSHA compliance incidents. This helps many companies to show that they have a culture of best practices and at times this can help to forgo or cut down on OSHA safety violations and assessments.
- Safety Consulting firms work with you and your insurance company to reduce your risk and keep your insurance costs low or try to get your insurance costs lower when your company has issues related to injuries on worksites or EMR – Experience Modification Rates. EMR has strong impact upon a business. It is a number used by insurance companies to gauge both past cost of injuries and future chances of risk. The lower the EMR for your business, the lower your worker compensation insurance premiums will be.
- Independent Safety Consultants will work with you to better your EMR rates, to allow your company to retain contracts or jobs and to obtain other jobs. Many General Contractors will require set levels of EMR rates and having a poor EMR rate or a high level of TRIR rate will keep a company from getting some contracts. A TRIR is the Total Recordable Incident Rate, which is a measure of occupational safety and health, which compares working conditions in workplaces and industries. It is calculated by combining the actual number of safety incidents and total work hours of all employees within a standard employee group.
Still More Benefits
- They help to assure set performance expectations for subcontractors and company personnel as it relates to safety and functions that safety is paramount to the situation.
- Independent Safety Consultants have an interest in your company, for they only succeed in business if you succeed. Thus, they work to assure your company is protected and providing safety best practices.
- They help your company, by providing services based on your needs. You avoid costs for what can be avoided by using professional best practices Independent Safety Consultants.
- You can terminate a Safety Consultant easier than terminating an employee.
If you need safety help for your company look to us at SCS Safety Health and Security Associates LLC, an independent safety consulting and training company. We stand ready to help you be compliant, be a better workplace for your employees and show your clients that your company take safety seriously. Call today (703)779-7330 or email at [email protected]