Activities and Ways of Organizing Better Occupational Health and Safety in Small Workplaces: Special Focus on Information

Abstract

Information is needed in all activities aiming at the development and improvement of working conditions. The information and communication technology has made it possible to have information available 24 h a day, 360 d a year. The administrative structures in various countries also call for more information steering at the workplace level. This means that more web-based and other materials for small enterprises are needed in all countries in order to improve safety and health of the workers. Four different approaches to improve workplace level activities are described here to provide models for others to modify them to their local conditions. The networking of small workplaces supports the development of their safety and thereby also their productivity and possibilities to offer jobs also in the future.

Systematic Work Environment Management: Experiences from Implementation in Swedish Small-scale Enterprises

“…Dialogue between employer and employees increases the knowledge of work environment and improve the working climate and the awareness of risks 7) . Guidelines, virtual networking around health and safety and web-based information are remarked by Lehtinen as practical actions and tools to improve health and safety at workplaces 8) . A review by Kogi points out the importance of locally tailored tools and low-cost solutions to improve work environment 9) .…”

Knowledge transfer and exchange in health and safety: a rapid review

“…Across the health and safety KTE approaches there were three broad categories of target audiences that included workplaces (see Table 2). Many approaches targeted workplace audiences directly [Baines, 2007;Carlan et al, 2012;(see also Chapman, et al, 2003, 2008, 2010; Elkind, Pitts, & Ybarra, 2002;Guzman, Yassi, Baril, & Loisel, 2008; (see also Kramer et al, 2004); (see also Kramer et al, 2010); Kramer et al, 2013;Lehtinen, 2006;Lortie, Desmarais, & Laroche, 2012 (see also Lortie & Desmarais, 2011); Sinden & MacDermid, 2014]. Workplace audiences included employers, workers and managers as well as health and safety personnel.…”

Agent-Based Modeling of Employee Protection-Oriented Safety Proactivity Behaviors at Small Scale Enterprises

“…Because of insufficient safety knowledge, resources, and funds, there may be more safety issues among SSEs than in large and medium enterprises [65, 72]. Recent studies in literature suggest that managerial intervention is aimed at improving safety information sharing; a better knowledge of safety regulation guidelines and employees' safety participation in the management of safety can help SSEs to enhance the quality of safety standards and the maturity of the safety system [48, 73]. According with this recent trend in literature, Mei et al [74] also suggest that stimulating safety proactivity behaviors could positively impact safety management of SSEs.…”