Return on investment or "ROI" is a term used most often in the world of finance regarding investments, although, it can be used by businesses and investors alike. The term can be applied to other things in addition to investments such as marketing ads, assets and even human capitol.
The Business Dictionary defines ROI as: "The earning power of assets measured as the ratio of the net income (profit less depreciation) to the average capital employed (or equity capital) in a company or project. Expressed usually as a percentage, return on investment is a measure of profitability that indicates whether or not a company is using its resources in an efficient manner.[1]
As a professional, how would you determine what you are worth to the company that you work for? Do you gauge your value by your salary? Do you gauge it by the fringe benefits the company provides you? Or do you use your title or a statement of "Great job!" to get a sense of your value to the company?
Return on Investment (ROI)
The return on an investment can be calculated and is typically expressed as a percentage and sometimes it is presented as a ratio. When companies consider the ROI of occupational safety, it most often is discussed in terms of cost of injuries, both realized and unrealized. It represents the monetary savings that a company reaps when incident and accident frequency and severity is decreased in the work place. Safety and Health Magazine reported in May of 2014 that the cost of Occupational injuries and deaths for 2012 as a cost of $198.2 billion dollars or an injury impact per worker of $1,400 or an average combined cost per claim of $36,592.[2] Are these numbers correct or accurate? It is hard to say. As safety professionals we understand that statistics are only as good as the reporting and data collection, but we have embraced the concept that increased incident and accident frequency and severity costs money. The question that we are all trying to answer is how do we decrease the frequency and severity of incidents and accidents.