In the second of our three-part series, we present another key benefit guaranteed to transform boardroom views of forklift training and justify your training budget.
This time, we demonstrate the significant long-term savings to be made by a safe workforce. Despite the temptation to take ‘short-cuts’, it’s safe workers who are actually more productive in the long run…
2. Safe workers will save you money in the long run
Contrary to common perception, operating safely does not mean sacrificing productivity. You can be both safe and productive. In fact, they’re often the same thing. Study after study proves that the safest workforces are the most efficient ones.
And for good reason. When you allow bad practice to occur, your site’s accident risk increases…and when accidents occur, there’s always a price to pay. In a worst case scenario, it’s an injury to a colleague and there are very few accidents involving fork lifts that result in only minor injuries. Not to mention the fines, compensation and sick pay to consider.
Even a seemingly insignificant incident can incur substantial costs. One dropped pallet of coffee, for example, could see as much as £5000 of stock written off. Then there’s the costs associated with closing down aisles and consequential lost productivity, clean up, restocking, re-siting and recycling.
It all costs time and money…
And that’s before you even consider the damage done to your lift trucks and racking. Across businesses of all shapes and sizes, damage is viewed as an acceptable norm. As explained in a previous blog post, the ‘it’s just a bump’ mentality is a costly one to possess.
But not only will good training limit damage, it will help operators work more efficiently, too, meaning reduced spend on things like forklift maintenance, fuel bills and tyre wear.
When you do the maths, the savings to be made by reducing damage costs and working efficiently are substantial. So the message to those in the boardroom is that equipping your workforce – from operators to pedestrians to management – with the skills and the know-how to work safely, makes good business sense.
Stay posted for our next blog post, where we explain how staff safety and it’s impact on morale, commitment and retention can help justify your training spend or get in touch here to find out more now.
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