Added Value

I work with what I call strong clients. They’re not un-caring with terrible accident stats. They’re the ones who genuinely care about health and safety: directors talk about it, managers try to lead by example, and people on the front line will speak up if something looks wrong. And yet, they tell me the same thing: “We’re committed. We want a better safety culture. But it’s hard to get the change going – and harder still to show the value of all this effort.” That’s the heart of the problem: the added value of good H&S is easiest to see only after something goes wrong.

The invisible success problem

There’s a built-in irony in health and safety: When you do have an accident, everyone asks: “Why didn’t we invest more in safety?”

When you don’t have accidents, people quietly wonder: “Are we overdoing all this safety stuff?”

Good safety is often invisible. Accident numbers go down and it can look like “nothing is happening” – just more forms, more training, more time.

So the first mindset shift I work on with clients is simple: Stop treating H&S as a cost, and start treating it as an investment. And like any investment, we have to talk about the return.

Where the value really shows up

You can’t prove the accident that never happened. But you can show where good H&S pays off.

Fewer disruptions

Every incident is a mini-crisis: first aid, investigations, downtime, rescheduling, overtime. Strong H&S reduces those shocks and keeps operations stable and predictable.`

Better quality

Safer processes are usually more consistent, easier to train, and less dependent on people taking a risk to get the job done. Housekeeping, clear work instructions and better ergonomics can cut both near misses and rework.

Reputation and customers

More clients and main contractors now look at culture, not just accident stats. Being able to show active safety leadership, engagement and improvement can help you win tenders, keep key customers, and stand out from competitors.

Retention and morale

When people believe “If I raise a concern, I’ll be listened to, not blamed”, they stay longer, engage more, and take more care. That’s a huge hidden saving.

Why culture change feels hard

Even with the best intentions, change can feel painfully slow. I see three common blockers.

Too many initiatives at once

New procedures, new systems, new posters, new training – launched all together. Culture doesn’t shift because you announce it. It shifts because you consistently follow up on concerns, close actions, and back people who stop unsafe work.

Mixed messages from leadership

Leaders mean well but sometimes say: “Safety first… but don’t let that order slip.” or “Stop the job if it’s unsafe… but don’t cause delays.” People notice what’s rewarded and what’s tolerated, not what’s written in the policy.

One of my main roles is helping leaders turn safety intent into everyday behaviour. “Everyone’s responsible” – but nobody has time.

H&S is “everyone’s responsibility”, but in practice it’s bolted onto one overstretched person. The best progress happens when senior leaders give safety proper airtime, supervisors are involved in solutions, and safety is built into planning, purchasing, and performance reviews.

Making added value visible

Here’s how I help clients show the value of what they’re doing – before there’s a disaster to point to.

Look at leading indicators, not just accidents.

If your dashboard is only RIDDORs and lost time injuries, a good year looks like a line of zeroes. Add measures like near misses reported, actions closed on time, safety walks completed, response time to concerns, and employee suggestions for improvement. These show whether your system is alive, not just whether you were lucky.

Put rough costs on incidents

We estimate for each incident the time spent dealing with it, downtime and disruption, overtime, agency staff and rework. Over a year, that gives you a simple message: “Incidents and near misses cost us roughly £X in time and disruption.” Suddenly the cost of not investing is clearer.

Link safety directly to business goals

Connect H&S to on-time delivery, quality and scrap, customer complaints, and absence. For example: “After we improved manual handling, musculoskeletal absence dropped and scrap reduced because people weren’t rushing or improvising.” Now safety isn’t an extra – it’s how you hit your targets.

Use real stories

Data convinces minds; stories move people. Tell the stories of the near miss that could have been life-changing, the person who stopped a job and prevented something serious, and the improvement that came from a shop-floor idea. These answer the question: “Why are we putting this much effort into H&S?”

So what is the added value of H&S?

For me, as a consultant, added value isn’t about more paperwork or another certificate. It’s about helping committed businesses turn good intentions into everyday habits, turn invisible prevention into visible business benefits, and turn “H&S is a cost” into “H&S is how we protect people and performance”.

Culture change is meant to feel uncomfortable. It shows up in the jobs you stop, the conversations you don’t dodge, the concerns you act on, and the consistency you keep when nobody’s watching.

That’s where the real added value of health and safety lives – not just in the accidents you avoid, but in the business you become.

Written by: Mark Grubb