In the most recent addition to the growing body of work demonstrating the financial performance benefits associated with excellence in health & safety, a recent study has found a significant link between stock market performance and employee health & safety programs.
The study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, highlighted how companies who invested in health & safety, commonly outperformed their counterparts who did not, based on S&P 500 average rate of return in investment simulations. In the best-performing scenarios, the firms representing excellence in OH&S achieved a 333% return, compared to an S&P 500 return of only 105%.
According to industry experts, these findings are consistent with and augment the growing body of knowledge associating excellence in OH&S with improved bottom line performance. This is not the first study of its kind and surely more research will be conducted in future to further examine the productivity and financial benefits associated with improved OH&S but for now, all indicators strongly support the notion that productivity, not unlike profitability, does not have to be achieved at the expense of safety.
Source:
OHS Canada Magazine – Jan/Feb 2016 Issue
National Post – Sept. 24, 2013 – Dr. Aw: Investing in employees’ health at work improves the bottom line for everyone, studies prove
