IOSH commends Olympics' ill-health prevention

19 July 2012

IOSH has praised the Olympic build project’s ill-health prevention programme, after research estimated a potential saving of millions of pounds through reduced sickness absence.

The research, commissioned by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and undertaken by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES), found that good health provisions saved as much as £7million during the three-year build of the Olympic and Paralympic Park, Village and venues.

To arrive at this figure, IES looked at the effect of occupational hygienist team on-site and observed that accident rates during the build dropped by two thirds. It calculated that this could have reduced absence through ill-health by half a day per worker for the duration of the project – 16,530 days in total.

IOSH has lauded this outstanding result, which saved as much as £7m over three years.

IOSH chief executive Rob Strange OBE said: “This piece of work proves that the business benefits of investing in pragmatic health and safety far outweigh the alternative – skimping on vital worker protection. Through our Li£e Savings campaign, we’re working hard to show businesses that investing in good health and safety not only saves lives, but serious cash too - this research backs this point exactly.

“The fact that the ODA employed an occupational hygiene team at the Olympic Park meant that they could identify potential hazards before they became serious incidents. This resulted in reduced occupational health risks, enhanced productivity, and a saving of as much as £7m over the three years from reduced sickness absence, which should be highly commended.”

As part of the research, released on Wednesday (18 July), estimates were also made on the likely economic benefits of having a team of occupational hygienists available on site. The service saved contractors, employers, the government and individuals money by helping to reduce the downtime involved in dealing with health risks, while minimising exposure to health risks. The scale of the savings was forecast to run into millions of pounds.

But figures showed that there was a return of around £7 for every £1 spent on the occupational hygiene programme, based on how much the absence reduction saved the build.

IOSH is now using the figures from this project as a case study within its Li£e Savings campaign (PDF 104 KB), which argues the case that good health and safety doesn’t just meet moral obligations, but can also save British businesses and the economy millions of pounds.

Lawrence Waterman, former IOSH president and head of health and safety for the ODA, said: “From the beginning of our programme we set health and safety as our top priority, and although the record of accident prevention has been recognised as the best in the industry’s history, we are even more proud of the way in which we and all our contractors have looked after the health of this brilliant workforce.

“The IES report proves that this wasn’t just the right thing to do, but it has also saved an enormous amount of money.  Good occupational health is obviously a good investment.”

Claire Tyers, principal associate at IES and the research report’s main author, said: “With 46,000 people working on the construction of the Olympic Park and Olympic and Paralympic Village, occupational hygiene practices provided real value. Preventative workplace health management has the potential to deliver real economic returns, as well as keeping workers well and able to work at their full capacity. The evidence is clear on this, and construction projects of any size could adopt similar approaches, suitable to their size, and see the benefits for themselves.”