While it is impossible to put a numerical value on human life, numerous studies have proven that investments in safety yield big returns.
Another Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index (WSI) surveyed executives on safety spending for insights on return on investment (ROI), and the findings are encouraging. An overwhelming 95 percent of leaders said workplace safety has a positive effect on financial performance, and of those, more than 60 percent report generating at least a $3 return for every dollar invested in safety.4
Evolving technologies provide designers with a wide variety of options to include pre-engineered solutions and materials with COF numbers that give the anti-slip for safety and productivity in their facilities. Designers and specifiers have new technologies at their fingertips to improve the function and safety of facilities, while achieving the aesthetic appearance of their designs and maintaining high quality.
Leave a legacy of safety
Nothing is more devasting than being brought in to fix a problem that could have been prevented during design and construction stages with a material design and or pre-engineered solution. Slip-and-fall events are nearly 100 percent preventable either through proper technological solutions during design or through remediation with available technologies as site conditions change and evolve and with specifying anti-slip materials. Understanding the strengths, challenges, and costs related to the technologies and materials available today allow designers to create safe, efficient, and cost-effective structures.
Safety consultants, such as certified walking-working surface specialists, can provide invaluable input during design, the development of the specifications, and assist in evaluating evolving conditions within a facility. Equipped with instruments such as tribometers, which measure surface traction, and profilometers, which provide microstructure surface analysis, certified walking-working surface specialists can assess the safety and longevity of surfaces with a data- and scientific-focused approach. Ultimately, this helps specifying engineers prevent any problems at the start of a project and mitigate any problems which arise during a facility’s use.
With the tools, materials and technologies available today, safety is integrated into a project at the first step and makes all subsequent steps safe and productive.
Notes
1 See the statistics on injury-related deaths, injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/deaths-by-demographics/top-10-preventable-injuries.
2 Learn more about fall-related injuries, www.safeopedia.com/definition/189/slips-trips-and-falls-stf#what-does-slips-trips-and-falls-st-f-mean.
3 Visit the 2021 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index (WSI), business.libertymutual.com/insights/2021-workplace-safety-index-the-top-10-causes-of-disabling-injuries.
4 Read this report on workplace safety, ergoweb.com/more-liberty-mutual-data-on-workplace-safety.
Author
Jeff Baker is the sales director at SLIPNOT. He has more than 35 years of experience in the manufacturing safety industry and chemical engineering space. His career at SLIPNOT began as a technical salesperson in 1998. Baker has been involved on projects worldwide and has spent more than a decade working in various chemical, metallurgical, and environmental labs including the Masco Corporation Research & Development Center, Environmental Chemistry Laboratory from 1983 to 1990, environmental laboratories between 1990 and 1996, and a steel service center in Detroit from 1996 to 1998. He holds a degree in civil engineering from Wayne State University, as well as a degree in chemistry from Lawrence Institute of Technology.
