Posted By Johnnyboy
Hi All,

Does anyone know what the average spend per head on Health and Safety in a large global organisation is???

Have tried the HSE website and Google! but no luck

Any help appreciated

Cheers

J

Posted By AlB
As Merv said, it's nearly impossible to answer, unless you look accross a whole lot of businesses and look at the indirect costs as well.

It also depends on the size of the business, the risks encountered within the business, the country the business is based, and where the company operates from as a base, the dedication of the Chief Exec, the historical safety record of the business, the business objectives, the safety and health objectives, the type of work involved (permanent site based vs on the road consultant etc), efficiency of the business, purchasing power, culture within the business, insurance terms and conditions.....etc etc etc...

I got to stop now too. My brain also hurts.

:)

Posted By Merv Newman
Calculating from annual safety budget may give you running costs but there will still be a lot not figured in. Who, for example, pays for maintenance of fire extinguishers ?

And, in the 15 years I was plant safety manager I never had a budget and never signed a purchase order. (counter-signed a few)

Broadly, running costs for safety usually came out of production, maintenance or training budgets. Even my salary and that of the nurse were paid through HR.

Merv

Posted By Merv Newman
Coming back to this (office work done for the day) I've always looked on safety as a profit center. I don't know what figure you use for estimating the cost of an "average" accident, but multiply that by your number of LTIs or the average for your industry group and even without indirect costs you can see how much you can save.

BUT. No-one has ever come up with a method to calculate the cost of THAT accident. As anyone who has ever been to court (not me) knows, fines and legal fees are only part of the cost.

One study showed that the overall cost of "ordinary" (stupid word, but there) injuries (ie, lets say, ones that dont get to court) is roughly the same for a company with a good safety records as for one with a bad record.

What ? you cry. How come ? you shout. He's gone off his head you (quick ! think of a different word) expostulate (!)

A company with, say 10 LTIs a year may not spend a lot of time and money on investigating nor on corrective or preventative action. Low cost per accident, but lots of accidents. ("harrie's gorn an' broke 'is leg again". "Oh. Right. Have you still got the agency phone number?".)

Another company which usually has a close to zero accident rate will, when the disaster of a serious accident arrives, apply lots and lots of management time and expertise on the analysis and invest in serious preventative actions. "Never again". ("'arrie's got a paper cut". "My God ! Quick ! Phone President Bush!") So, few accidents but high cost per accident.

Does it really balance out like that ? I don't know but you have to trust the researchers. Don't you ?

Merv

Oh. and we use a "typical" figure for direct costs of 15 000 euros (£10 000) for direct, measurable costs. I know it's low for some people but we can easily justify it from the bills that companies receive.

5 000 euros for having a LTI, then another 1 000 per day lost, with the average LTI being 10 days off work.

Example : large plant 3000+ employees with an industry average rate of 5% (you do the conversion, please) of employees injured per year will rack up 150 LTIs.

Halve that rate, maybe over a few years, and they are saving 75 x £10 000 year-on-year. But they also spend a lot more management time and professional expertise on accident prevention. And they find that perfectly acceptable and manageable.

Pays for a lot (LOTS) of consultant fees.

I thought that, while I was here, I might just as well go to the other end of the scale. Using the same numbers, a 100 employee site will have 5 LTIs per year. At £10 000 per LTI that just about comes to a decent salary for a CSP (including scandalous IOSH subscription(still got to pay mine. Tomorrow the cheque WILL be in the post. Promise)).

Merv (again)