11 min read

Send to CEO: Health and safety’s impact on sales

Featured Image

What if we told you that your company’s sales rely more on your work in health and safety than anything that your marketing and sales team will do this year?

 

Let me explain.

 

It doesn’t matter what service or product your company provides. Whether you sell to other businesses or direct to consumer. How expensive your product or service is. Or even what industry you operate within. Your company’s most important asset will always be the same. So, what is it?

 

Reputation.

 

With a great reputation, it will be easier and more cost-effective for your company to attract new clients, earn more money for their deals and keep customers around longer. All increasing that all important figure on the bottom line.

 

Take Apple, for example. The company has a stellar reputation for leading tech innovation across phones and laptops. Thanks to that reputation, consumers return in droves every year to buy their newest products for an even higher price. This all leads to an impressive bottom line and has turned this tech start up into one of the biggest players in the space in a couple of decades.

 

The reverse is also true. If a company has a bad reputation or publicly experiences a major HSEQ incident, it is magnitudes more difficult to get new customers, keep charging a high price and not lose your customers to someone with a better reputation.

 

But how does this impact you and your work health and safety?

 

Well, a key determinant of your company’s reputation is HSEQ.

 

If a company has a major workplace health and safety incident, it starts a domino effect. Word gets out which can lead to a major news story, sales figures drop, the company’s profitability decreases and this then causes the share price to plummet. This can then lead to cost-saving measures, redundancies and – in the worst cases – entering administration.

 

It doesn’t matter how much work your marketing and sales team have done on their brand reputation, without safeguarding yourself against major HSEQ issues there could be huge impacts on your company’s sales.

 

However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Much like the Apple example above, the reverse is also true. HSEQ can also have a tremendously positive impact on a company’s reputation as well.

 

Research in the construction industry, for example, has found strong HSEQ linked to increases in corporate reputation by 82% of companies and the resulting ability to contract new work by 66% of companies. Not only is your work in HSEQ keeping your people safe, but it’s also helping to drive new customers and increase your company’s sales.