insuring finances are not hidden business

Cost of time spent on accident investigationĪnd there's more.Reduced output while getting new team members up to speed.Cost of temporary workers needed to replace injured staff or to recover lost time.Delays to the project or production line.And just like the titanic, they can sink your business, and indirect costs are unlikely to be covered by insurance. In what is often referred to as an 'accident iceberg', the majority of the costs from an accident are hidden below the surface. HSE Save insurance costsįor some minor accidents, there might be no direct costs at all, but you can be certain there will be some hidden costs involved. Uninsured costs can outweigh the insured costs - and these uninsured costs come straight off your company's 'bottom-line' profits. I'd go as far as to say it's a health and safety myth. It's often assumed that business insurance will cover all accidents costs, but this is far from the truth. For example, your insurance won't cover fines or sick pay. And your business insurance may cover some direct costs, but it won't cover all of them. Direct costs of accidentsĭirect costs from an accident, are the costs directly related to the accident. While the study in no longer available online, it forms the cornerstone of the financial argument for health and safety in most management books and is demonstrated more recently in the HSEs Costs to Great Britain statistics.

In a study by the HSE, they found hidden indirect costs are usually 10 times, and can be up to 36 times, greater than the direct costs from an accident.

So while we are mostly talking about financial costs in this article, let's not forget that there is also a human cost of accidents, and we will also cover that later on (in the hidden human costs section).īut focusing back on the financial costs of accidents at work, the financial argument for preventing accidents is pretty compelling by itself. There are many reasons other than financial to avoid accidents, such as preventing harm and suffering, complying with legal requirements and, just simply doing the right thing. And an accident at work can cost more than money - it could cost your life. But of course, money isn't everything, even in business. The first thing that might spring to mind when we talk about the cost of something is money.

Insuring finances are not hidden business