Many safety pros struggle to get management to understand the “indirect costs” of accidents. This is a real cost to the business, but those outside our profession are so far outside that they struggle to grasp the “indirect cost.” Heck, many fail to grasp the “direct costs” since they do not come out of their pay. Most of us have heard the phrase, “It is the cost of doing business.” But there is a very simple way to explain how accidents come with indirect costs…
I think most adults have sat in a traffic jam caused by an accident. Think about the time spent sitting and what that does to our productivity. The same happens in a workplace accident… machines cant run until after the investigation, OSHA arrives and has to interview employees, which removes them from their productive duties, etc. The indirect cost of accidents typically are 4-6X’s what the direct cost are.
