Whether one owns a small family-run company or is the CEO of a big company, among the most vital issues that employers absolutely need to address is worker health and safety.

While productivity and overall revenue is important, if the staff members aren’t following safe practices and keeping themselves healthful, the result will eventually become a loss in earnings due to less productivity and compensation for sick days.

Every company absolutely needs to implement written safety policies and procedures that are clear and understandable to the average reader. Not only is this necessary for protecting the staff members from harm, but having written policies also assists to protect the business against claims about the company not following safe practices, or even worse, potential lawsuits.

Many companies also understand that safety knowledge improves through ongoing training and inviting the employees to give input about safety practices.

Workers should also be encouraged to keep themselves healthful because an unhealthful employee causes more loss in revenue due to sick days. Clearly an employer can’t determine what the employee will eat for lunch, but there are simple measures that an employer can take to encourage healthier habits.

Providing healthier vending machine options, a tobacco-free environment, and even discounts on fitness club memberships might encourage healthier lifestyles.

While worker health and safety are very important aspects of a corporation, regretfully they are often neglected until a problem arises. Companys need to be proactive about health and safety to protect themselves and their employees.

Safety training, encouraging breaks to take a walk, or paying for worker gym memberships, will clearly cost the business money, but in the long term, this can be a great investment and a way to potentially save money due to health and safety issues in the future.

Corporations need to look at the large picture and how such simple measures can create a more successful business.