CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UL’s Integrated Health & Safety Institute (IHSI) today issued a report ranking state’s prevalence of health conditions and workplace safety rates compared to the national average. The IHSI reports estimate the financial impact of these conditions as a result of employee absence, increased healthcare costs, and lost productivity, and show trends in the cost of employer provided insurance for each state.
With the support of UL’s research, businesses are increasingly recognizing the impact workplace health and safety management can have on organizational productivity, worker safety and well-being, morale, risk management and operational costs. Up to this point, however, available data for companies seeking to understand risk in the communities where they operate has been hard to find and interpret.
IHSI, the first private sector not-for-profit institute dedicated to advancing the integration of health and safety programs within corporations around the world, is building a strong foundation for companies seeking to find this information. The Institute recently sponsored a study which was published in the January issue of JOEM that found a correlation between a healthy and safe workforce and a company’s stock market performance. Additionally, UL has published a new standard offering organizations a set of components that should be considered as part of integrated health and safety programming.
“The state reports supplement IHSI’s research around the impact of integrating health and safety in the workplace,” said Todd Hohn, IHSI’s global director. “The insights gleaned from these reports provide companies with knowledge to help identify and understand potential issues that, if managed through an integrated health and safety framework, could reduce injuries and illnesses in the workplace.”
IHSI’s state reports show the cost to employers for providing insurance benefits to their employees as a percent of total compensation dropping in several regions of the country including the eastern, southern and mountain regions in the 2010-2012 time frame.
“While the decrease in the cost of insurance compared to employee compensation was a pleasant surprise, it would be wishful thinking to believe this trend will continue indefinitely,” said Andrew Kapp, Research Manager, IHSI’s research manager. “Furthermore this figure represents the average for private industry and in state and local government, and individual employers experience varies greatly depending on the employees’ actual use of these benefits.”
View IHSI’s state reports: http://www.ulworkplace.com/wp-content/uploads/UL_State-Reports.pdf
About UL’s Integrated Health and Safety Institute
Founded in June 2015, UL’s Integrated Health & Safety Institute (IHSI) is the first private sector not-for-profit institute dedicated to advancing the integration of workplace health and safety programs. IHSI provides world-class research, guidance, standards, and education to assist employers in integrating their health, safety and worker well-being initiatives. For more information, visit http://www.ulworkplace.com/blog/workplacesafety/accelerating-the-integration-of-health-and-safety/.
About UL
UL is a premier global independent safety science company that has championed progress for more than 120 years. Its nearly 11,000 professionals are guided by the UL mission to promote safe working and living environments for all people via two distinct entities: Underwriters Laboratories Inc., a 501(c)3 public charity, and UL LLC. UL uses research and standards to continually advance and meet ever-evolving safety needs. We partner with businesses, manufacturers, trade associations and international regulatory authorities to bring solutions to a more complex global supply chain. For more information, visit http://www.UL.com.
