Why workplace health and safety is important for employers

Most employers want to do the right thing when it comes to health and safety, but in busy organisations, it can often be overlooked. In Breathe’s recent health and safety survey of managers, leaders and employees in SMEs revealed that:

• Nearly half had one or more key health and safety documents missing or out of date.

• 43% of employees said they hadn’t received any health and safety training since onboarding

• Almost half hadn’t carried out a formal health and safety audit in the past 12 months, or weren’t sure if they had.

This article explains why workplace health and safety is so important, and how to manage it in a way that’s realistic for small and growing businesses.

 

Skip to:

 

Why is workplace health and safety important?

What are employers’ responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act?

What’s the cost of overlooking health and safety?

Real-world examples of poor health and safety at work

How can you promote good health and safety in the workplace?

Looking for practical ways to manage workplace health and safety?

FAQs about the importance of workplace health and safety

 

Why is workplace health and safety important?

 

Despite its challenges, workplace health and safety remains essential because it protects your employees and anyone else that interacts with your workplace. Good health and safety management can help organisations:

 

• Reduce workplace risks and accidents

• Lower sickness absence and staff turnover

• Avoid costly legal action and enforcement

• Reduce insurance premiums over time

• Limit disruption caused by incidents or investigations

• Protect their reputation with customers, partners, and regulators

• Create healthier, safer working environments where people can do their best work

 

Where health and safety practices are poorly managed, the consequences can be serious. Employers may face enforcement action under the Health and Safety at Work Act, alongside higher absence levels, legal costs, reputational damage, and, in severe cases, business closure.

 

 

What are employers’ responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act?

 

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA) is the main law that sets out how employers must protect people from harm at work. It requires employers to take sensible, proportionate steps to keep employees and others safe while work is carried out. It also gives employees’ responsibilities towards health and safety, needing them to cooperate with their employer to protect themselves and their peers.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is responsible for enforcing the HSWA along with local authorities. The HSWA places a wide range of duties on the employer to protect the health and safety of their:

 

• Workers and direct employees

• Temporary workers and casual staff

• Sub-contractors and freelancers

• Clients and partners

• Visitors and the general public when they’re on the business' premises
  
  

Alongside the HSWA regulations, you'll find government-issued guides and codes of practice that detail responsibilities, covering everything from heavy lifting to control of hazardous substances.

The main responsibilities for employers include:

 

• Providing a safe place to work, including safe access and exit routes

• Creating health and safety policies in organisations with more than five employees

• Identifying and managing risks through suitable and sufficient risk assessments

• Putting sensible control measures in place to prevent or reduce harm

• Providing information, instruction, and training so people understand how to work safely

• Supplying and maintaining safe equipment, tools, and workstations

• Having clear procedures for emergencies, such as fire, workplace accidents, or serious incidents

• Protecting employees’ health and wellbeing, including mental health, as well as physical safety

 

 

What’s the cost of overlooking health and safety?

 

It’s easy for organisations to think of health and safety as an expense. The costs involved are often visible and immediate, including training expenses and the time spent on risk assessments. This can make health and safety feel like a compliance burden rather than a business priority.

Writing in The Guardian, Ruth Wilkinson of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health has warned that viewing health and safety in this way is a “false economy”, one that can ultimately damage people, reputation, and long-term performance. But often, organisations only realise this after a serious incident takes place and they’re forced to spend far more time and money trying to put things right.

 

“Most businesses are reactive. They don't come to you because they want to improve health and safety, they come because something's happened or they've got a deadline."

Adam Older (IOSH, NEBOSH), Managing Director, A.Older Safety Solutions

While health and safety spending doesn’t always deliver an immediate or visible return, it plays an important role in preventing some of the following costs that can be disruptive and difficult to recover from.

 

"The ROI for managing health and safety is in reduced injuries and less employee time off - the gains you don't see."

Adam Older (IOSH, NEBOSH), Managing Director, A.Older Safety Solutions

Lost productivity

An estimated 40.1 million working days were lost in the UK due to work-related ill health and workplace injury in 2024-25. Lost time creates serious disruption for teams by placing extra pressure on anyone covering their work.

According to recent evidence, SMEs can improve productivity by investing in health and safety. A peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management found that organisations certified to ISO 45001 (the international standard for occupational health and safety management systems) were associated with higher productivity and improved profitability over time.

 

Work-related illness and injuries

Lost productivity is often a symptom of a bigger issue: people becoming unwell or injured because risks aren’t being properly managed.

In the UK, HSE reports that 1.9 million working people experienced a work-related illness in 2024-25. This included 964,000 workers with work-related stress, depression, or anxiety, and 511,000 people affected by work-related musculoskeletal disorders, such as back, neck, or joint pain. Meanwhile, around 680,000 working people sustained an injury at work, according to the Labour Force Survey, with 59,219 injuries formally reported under RIDDOR.

Beyond the human impact, the financial cost to businesses and society is substantial. The HSE estimates the total cost of work-related injuries and ill health caused by working conditions at £22.9 billion for 2023-24.

Overall, these figures highlight how unmanaged health and safety risks can affect far more than compliance. They influence absence levels, team capacity and long-term sustainability, particularly for smaller businesses that don’t have enough resources to deal with any unexpected interruptions.

 

Work-related deaths

Although fatal incidents at work are relatively rare, failures in health and safety can have devastating consequences. Some deaths happen on-site and in the moment. In 2023, 124 workers were killed in work-related accidents, according to HSE figures.

Others happen years later, as a result of hazards that weren’t properly controlled at the time. In the same year, 2,218 deaths from mesothelioma were recorded, linked to past asbestos exposure.

 

Real-world examples of poor health and safety at work

 

Employees, contractors, agency workers, and even customers can all be affected by health and safety at work. The following examples show that organisations of any size have a responsibility to protect employees and customers, and can face hefty penalties from the Health and Safety Executive when efforts fall short.

 

• Inova Stone Ltd., a Slough-based stone fabricator, was fined £60,000 after failing to protect workers from prolonged silica dust exposure.

• Tracel Ltd., an engineering firm, was fined £27,200 after failing to control health risks from metalworking fluids. Inspectors found workers at risk of dermatitis, asthma, and other illnesses.

• Site and Field Services Limited was fined £40,000 after a worker became entangled in a horizontal borer because the machine was left running during cleaning. The employee sustained significant injuries to his legs, ankles, ribs, a collapsed lung, and a partial amputation of his toes.

• John Lewis PLC. was fined £1.2 million after an agency worker suffered serious injuries at its warehouse due to unsafe steps.

• British Airways was fined over £3 million after two baggage handlers suffered serious injuries falling from height at Heathrow Airport.

• Merlin Entertainments was fined a record £5 million after the Smiler roller coaster crashed at Alton Towers theme park. Several riders suffered life-changing injuries, including amputations.

• AH Worth, a potato factory, was fined £300,000 for exposing workers to sulphur dioxide gas, causing life-changing injuries.

 

How can you promote good health and safety in the workplace?

 

Dealing with health and safety can sometimes feel like form-filling that gets in the way of driving your business forward. But it’s an essential part of any good business and it doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Here’s how to satisfy health and safety regulations without it taking up too much of your time.

 

1. Have a written policy (and make it accessible)

The HSWA requires you to create a written health and safety policy if you have five or more employees. Even if your headcount is lower, it’s still good practice to create this documentation as it ensures you've properly risk assessed your business and put measures in place to control them.

An effective policy includes:

• A general statement on health and safety

• How you plan to manage health and safety

• Who the health and safety representatives are in your organisation

• Likely risks to your business and how you plan to reduce or eliminate them

Ideally, you’ll review your health and safety policy annually, or following any major changes to your business.

Once you’ve drafted your policy, it’s good practice to record and store documents your documents in one shared, secure system like Breathe.

 

“Not only is it good practice to store all employees related information securely in a single place, it means directors will have easy access to information if, unfortunately, a dispute arises. In effect, employers can create and store an audit-trail of all documents and communications which can be easily referenced at any time.”

Sally White, Director of SYLO Beyond HR

2. Offer health and safety training

Employees can only be responsible for their own health and safety if they know what you expect from them. Make health and safety training part of their onboarding, so they understand their obligations as soon as they join your organisation.

Review training requirements regularly and provide refresher training or updates as needed to implement new policies.

Tip: HR and health and safety software like Breathe allows you to easily monitor training and securely store documents.

 

3. Get the right health and safety equipment

Having a health and safety policy is a big step in the right direction, but you also need to follow through on managing any risks you’ve identified.

Make sure your staff have the equipment they need to do their jobs safely. It’s also important to have the right health and safety signage to reduce the risk of incidents.

 

4. Set a positive example

Create a work culture that prioritises health and safety from the top of your org chart. If leaders don’t take health and safety seriously, neither will your staff. But if you take a proactive approach to health and safety, you’ll build a reputation as a caring and conscientious employer and your staff will follow suit by helping to protect themselves and others.

 

5. Consider occupational health support

Occupational health is a branch of medicine that focuses on the physical and mental wellbeing of employees in the workplace. Occupational practitioners are medical and healthcare professionals (mostly doctors and nurses) with specialist areas of expertise.

They work with employers and HR teams in all types of organisations to provide impartial advice that supports employees and helps employers understand their people’s issues.

 

 

Sally White explains the importance of occupational health:

 

“By engaging with occupational health professionals to support employees, businesses can avoid many of the costs related to absenteeism, especially in cases where an employee is on long-term sick-leave.

Although there are costs associated with investing in occupational health, these are often a fraction of what businesses need to spend if employee physical and mental problems go unchecked. Monitoring and really understanding absences has always been important, but probably never more so than now.”

Looking for practical ways to manage workplace health and safety?

 

Getting health and safety right isn’t about perfection or paperwork for its own sake. It’s about understanding the real risks in your workplace and taking sensible, proportionate steps to protect your people and keep work running safely.

In our on-demand webinar ‘How safe are you, really? SME health and safety risks in 2026’, we explore the most common risks facing small and growing businesses today, and where organisations are still being caught out despite good intentions.

It’s a practical session designed to help HR leads, office managers, and business owners improve safety in the workplace, without it becoming overwhelming.

 

 

We also have a free health and safety checklist that was created in partnership with health and safety specialists from Omny Group to help you sense-check your current health and safety approach and identify gaps you might need to fill. 

 

 

FAQs about the importance of workplace health and safety

 

What are the three main reasons for health and safety?

The three main reasons for health and safety are to:

• Protect people from harm

• Meet legal responsibilities

• Reduce disruption to the business

When employees manage risks properly, work is less likely to be interrupted by incidents that could have been prevented.

 

How important is the Health and Safety at Work Act?

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 is a law that sets the foundations of workplace health and safety in the UK. It outlines employers’ duty to protect employees and others from harm, so far as is reasonably practicable. The Act also clarifies that health and safety is a shared responsibility, with employees expected to cooperate and take reasonable care of themselves and others.

 

Why is the HSE important?

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) plays a key role in helping workplaces stay safe and compliant. As a practical source of support for employers, it provides guidance, tools, and codes of practice to help employers understand their responsibilities. It also enforces health and safety legislation by investigating serious incidents and taking action where standards fall short.

 

Do I need an emergency plan for my workplace?

Yes, an emergency plan for health and safety is an essential part of protecting your people.

Being prepared for situations like fires or medical incidents reduces confusion and helps to keep everyone safe. Your plan should be proportionate to your workplace and cover:

• Evacuation procedures, including clear exits and meeting points

• First aid arrangements, with trained first aiders and stocked kits

• Incident reporting to learn lessons and reduce risks

• Communication steps, including how to contact emergency services

Emergency plans should be shared with staff and reviewed regularly.

 

Is occupational health for SMEs or large organisations?

Occupational health is suitable for any type or size of organisation, including SMEs and large enterprises. Of course, there are costs associated with hiring occupational health practitioners, so smaller companies might struggle to recognise the value of this investment. But in reality, occupational health can help businesses reduce costs and keep their people working happily and safely, which ultimately, drives the business forward.

 

How can employers protect their employees’ health and wellbeing?

Employers can protect their employees’ health and wellbeing by managing workplace risks and making support easy to access. Along with managing their physical health, it means taking reasonable steps to check that employees are:

• Working hours and patterns that allow adequate rest

• Protected from bullying and harassment

• Treated fairly and free from discrimination

• Clear on who to speak to if they have any concerns

Support mechanisms can also play an important role. Many employers offer access to employee assistance programmes (EAPs), which provide confidential support for issues such as stress, mental health concerns, financial worries, or personal challenges.

When clear policies, supportive managers, and accessible support services work together, employees are more likely to seek help early and stay well in a healthy and safe workplace.