Lowering risk and adding value through health and safety compliance
01 February 2013 | Magazine Archives FAnews & FAnuus | Features / Profiles | John Kilian, Safe Working Practice
Although all businesses must comply with health and safety legislation, there is still no legislation that compels business owners to be health and safety compliant for insurance purposes. The consequences of this usually only become clear to your clients following a claim which is not paid out by the insurance company, says John Kilian, Risk Management Consultant at Safe Working Practice (SWP), a leading national health and safety consultancy that specialises in risk assessment for a wide range of business sectors.
Established in 2004, SWP has a large portfolio of contracts throughout South Africa and a team of qualified consultants with the depth of knowledge required to support and assist with all health and safety risk-related services. This places SWP in the ideal position to offer added value to brokers by partnering with them to help clients reduce risk and become health and safety compliant. "Not only does this service improve the client’s risk profile and lead directly to lower premiums, but it could also prevent clients from facing financial ruin and even legal prosecution,” says Kilian.
Lower premiums
"The impact of health and safety compliance is a long-term reality and a vital service to any business,” he says. "We can help you provide much value to your clients through our unique health and safety service offering. Our intention is to partner with brokers from the beginning of the client process. We can help them to offer their clients a cost-effective and efficient service that could well lead to lower premiums and a better claims track record.”
Increased demand
As a business turnaround specialist and franchising expert, John Kilian was approached by SWP, almost five years ago, when the Western Cape based operation recognised the potential to expand its scope of services nationally. Previously the company had focused mainly on construction and consulting engineer clientele, but in the face of changing legislation, it soon became clear that health and safety was becoming an imperative issue for almost every type of organisation, regardless of the industry.
Kilian’s solution to meet the ever increasing demand for health and safety risk consultants was to expand SWP nationally through a franchise model. Today the company has branches in almost every major region with the resources to service companies across country borders. Now a fully qualified SHE (Safety Health Environment) consultant himself, Kilian is a permanent member of the SWP team and has just established another branch in Northern Gauteng.
Real value service offering
Kilian says SWP has spent a great deal of time researching the insurance market in order to gain a better understanding of its requirements and has accordingly adapted its service offering to add real value to insurance brokers. Working closely with the FIA, Kilian intends to approach insurance brokers throughout South Africa with a view to partnering with them as health and safety risk assessors.
Calculated cost
"Money spent to ensure your business is compliant should not be seen as an expense, but rather as an investment that should become part and parcel of your client’s daily business,” Kilian says. "The calculated cost of taking a risk is not worth the penalties that are incurred as a result of not being compliant.”
Affordable service
Kilian is passionate about health and safety in the workplace. "When you consider the fact that the work that you are doing on a daily basis may prevent an injury and even save someone’s life, it is a very gratifying business to be in,” he says. "Health and safety is a people business, it’s about forming strong relationships with clients who put their trust in you and your advice,” he added.
"This is an affordable service that offers clients protection from loss of assets and helps to prevent accidents. In short, it provides the reassurance of knowing that they are fully compliant with the regulations as set out in the Occupational Health and Safety Act,” says Kilian.
