There may be some out there who still think workplace health nd safety is an expense instead of an investment, and when I or other safety officers try to sell the investment point, there are probably some who think we are just carping along to maintain our jobs by trying to paint the importance of safety as a justification for us still getting a paycheck.

Well now, there may finally be some data that can help back up what we have been saying all along.

[Image courtesy of Flickr user 401(k) 2012 via a Creative Commons license]

[Image courtesy of Flickr user 401(k) 2012 via a Creative Commons license]

So, is occupational health and safety really an expense or an investment? If the performance of the stock market can be any indicator … well, we’ll tell you the results of a recent study and you could probably figure it out.

Researchers at the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) in Illinois recently put out a report measuring the stock performance of some of the leading safety companies that are publicly traded and ran a comparison against a standard stock benchmark, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500). What the researchers did is conduct a study of companies which had applied for or received ACOEM Corporate Health Achievement Award for their occupational heath and safety success, tracking their stocks from 2001 through 2014 and running it against the performance of the S&P 500 over that period.

What was found was pretty remarkable. Using a hypothetical $10,000 investment in 2001, the companies which were recognized for safety and health excellence performed, at worst, twice as well as the S&P 500 benchmark, returining 204 percent over 13 years compared to the Index’s 105-percent return. At the high end of the scale, there were stocks that achieved as much as a 333-percent return, more than triple the S&P 500.

To be fair, while there wasn’t any real drilling down to find an actual connection between safety success or investment and overall stock performance, we can say this: One of the major numbers that investors and experts look at with a publicly traded company in which to invest is in expenses. And labor costs that get bloated can affect the bottom line and affect profits. And the stock goes up or down not so much on the present state of the company, but it is usually a projection of future hopes.

If costs are kept in check and there is especially no spike in labor costs because of time-loss incidents or other safety issues, or if a capital expenditure was labeled to improve overall safety, that will tend to lead investors into investing in that stock. And chances are good that whatever investment you make in safety improvements will translate well in your overall stock performance over the following quarters. Why? Because most investors and experts know that safety performance translates to better financial performance and efficiency in terms of profits. And profitability, or expected profitability, will drive investors.

So the next time you are considering not buying that piece of expensive equipment that would improve safety of workers dur to the up-front cost, think about the research from ACEOM and consider the appeal of your company to investors should that investment result in lower productivity costs in the following year due to less time-loss by workers.