Chamber lunch: Safety good for business

Safety was the word of the day at the Yorkton Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon June 18.

Guest speaker Colin Pullar, president of the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association (SCSA), spoke to the business leaders present at Painted Hand Casino with a presentation titled: Safety – An Investment in Uncertain Economic Times.

He said there are three reasons businesses look at safety, because of re

It is “good business,” he explained, for both the obvious costs such as lost productivity, but also more subtle reasons such as damaged reputation, which can be hard to pinpoint in financial terms.

He noted that from a banking and financing perspective, companies with good safety protocols and records have an easier go because of reduced volatility.

Good safety culture also breeds good business culture, he said, suggesting businesses that are more efficient and methodical in safety tend to be more so in general, which is good for the bottom line.

Of course, morally, it is also the right thing to do. Pullar urged his audience to look at its people not as expenses, but as assets.

“Investor comfort comes from people,” he said.

Pullar also crunched the numbers, noting that safety in his industry has improved dramatically in the past two decades. Insurance premiums paid by the 9,000 SCSA amounted to approximately $53.5 million in 2015. He showed a graph demonstrating had the safety situation not changed in Saskatchewan and adjusted for inflation that bill could be as much as $269 million today.

He also anticipates the 2016 premiums will be down to only $49 million.

Pullar left the audience with a challenge to treat safety not as an expense, but as a strategic asset.