Question 12:

“In today’s dynamic marketplace, many organizations/industries are initiating cost

reduction measures to remain competitive”. Discuss the contradictory demand of cost
reduction programmes and the need to invest to enhance the standards of Health, Safety
and Environment (HSE) in the industry. Is it possible to be cost-effective yet meeting the
ever-increasing HSE requirements?

Answer :

Introduction:
Construction world is very competitive now a day. On one hand, many construction
companies have to initiate cost reduction to remain competitive. On the other hand, they
also facing the stronger awareness and demand from the clients, authorities and even the
public, for better standard of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) in the construction
industry. These will definitely incur additional cost expenditure to the companies.
However, there are still possible ways to be cost effective yet meeting the ever-increasing
HSE requirement.

Point 1:
To improve HSE may need to invest for safety equipment and to implement the safe
system of work. A high standard of HSE also require adequate and routine educations
and trainings for all the workers on the HSE matters. These will not only improve the
working condition, but also help to improve the discipline and attitude of the workers.
Besides, improve industry hygiene where create an improved health environment for
workers will also improve job satisfaction which lead to improve of productivity.
Eventually, the productivity and quality of works will also be improved. This will be
particularly true for companies which treat workers as their major assets. When
considering in the long term basis, the investment in HSE will still remain cost-effective
with higher productivity.

Point 2:
In implementation of a higher standard of HSE, it is always need to identify hazards or
risk assessment at workplace and carry out Job Safety Analysis (JSA). This effort will
help to reduce likelihood of accident which may cause downtime, damages and fatality.
These will help to reduce of losses by company due to idling, compensation and medical
expenses to the injured workers. Also indirect losses comes from material damage, lost of
equipment and expenses resulting from loss of production. In other words, the cost
effective will be improved.

Point 3:
Globalization has shrunk the world to such an extent that the markets are no longer
localized. In order to be worldwide recognized HSE standard, the company will need to
implement ISO 14000 and OSHA 18000 certification accreditation. This will definitely
enhance the image of the company. Also, setting the company become a global player in
the industry and create more business opportunity where client trust that on-time delivery
of product due to good management of HSE to reduce unsafe problems. Indirectly, the
amount of money spend on HSE will help the company to be remain competitive when
facing the global market.

Point 4:
According to the research, most of the accidents happened due to carelessness of
workers. The most effective ways to increase the carefulness of each worker actually is
not costly, that is to educate the workers to have a good safety habits. All workers must
understand that safety is everybody responsibility, it is not rely on employer, safety
officer or authorities. They themselves should play the major role to ensure that they
themselves and their colleagues are in the safe working environment. For example, the
international contractor especially European and Japanese construction companies, can
always come out with a very competitive contract price and their workers will not to
compromise on HSE matter. When emphasis HSE become a culture among the workers,
the cost of implementing higher standard of HSE will be greatly reduced.

Conclusion
Cost effective does not means must be reducing in the cost or money which suppose to
spend. But it should be make full use of the amount of money spend to do something.
The results should be value for money. In order to achieve this, investment in HSE will
help to improve the quality of works and hence improve the effectiveness of capital
spend. Continuing education has to be carried out before the culture emphasis on HSE
surfaces. There is still much more efforts need to be done in Malaysia to reach the status
of advanced countries especially a voluntary and spontaneous safety and health culture is
still in its infancy. This step initially may be modest but over the long term there will be
respectable incremental improvement to the efforts. We are confident to conclude that it
is possible to be cost effective yet to pursuit a higher standard of HSE.