Members urged to make business case in 2012 budgets

IOSH has today launched a series of new tools and resources to build the business case for health and safety.

The resources have been developed as part of IOSH’s Li£e Savings campaign, which aims to show businesses that good health and safety management can save serious cash as well as lives.

“As thousands of businesses negotiate some of their tightest budgets yet for the next financial year, we want to give members the tools to help them make a watertight case for health and safety,” said Caroline Patel, Head of Campaigns at IOSH.

“We know that in this turbulent economic period funding for critical health and safety projects will be a tougher ‘sell’ than ever – that’s why we’re calling on members to set out the thousands or even millions their work can save in their budget bids, not just the investment needed.”

IOSH has launched new resources on its website to help members build the business case for their work, and make the case to senior managers. The materials include an interactive online quiz called Save a Million, to challenge senior executives’ perceptions of health and safety, a leaflet called ‘Can you afford to waste money?’, designed to get managers’ attention with sobering facts and figures about the money squandered on poor health and safety management, and a new one-day CPD course called ‘Meaning business’, which covers creating and presenting the business case.

The new tools join free resources including ‘Cash back’, a simple guide to business case development, a series of case studies featuring the money-saving work of six IOSH members, a cost calculator, and a resource file linking to more online tools, research and case studies. There are also interviews with senior personnel at E.ON, British Gas and Leeds Met University on how good health and safety saved money for their organisations, as well as perspectives from IOSH members on developing the business case.

Bridget Gilmour, Chartered Member and health and safety consultant, has already used some of the resources to get her client to see health and safety in a different way. She said:

"I’d been trying to get my client, a multi-site company, to see that extra investment in health and safety was needed over the whole group. I decided to try a new tack to get the message across. I looked at the accidents and what had been reported, and did a really conservative estimate on how much time and how many people were involved in the accident reporting process alone. It equated to a number of weeks of managers’ time. If you consider how much a manager costs, it was a lot of time for them. It really got their attention."

Added Caroline Patel: “Whether you’re pitching new ideas to improve health, safety or welfare, or trying to secure funding for ongoing projects, it’s worth factoring safety savings into your budget bids, so that your senior team is more likely to buy into the benefits of investment.”

Get in touch with IOSH’s campaigns team for free copies of the campaign materials, or for more information.