Barriers to OHS interventions in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Abstract

a b s t r a c tBarriers to OHS interventions are factors that hinder proper design, implementation and evaluation. An analysis of the barriers is crucial for understanding intervention effectiveness and improving the way in which design, implementation and evaluation of interventions are carried out. However, there is little consensus on how barriers should be understood, how important they are in different contexts, and how they can hinder OHS interventions. This exploratory study based on interviews with 58 safety officers of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) gave an overview of the most frequent barriers to OHS interventions, as well as of the effect of the intervention process phase, of the firm's size and of the sector. The most frequent barriers underline three main issues: regulation, resources, and information. The barriers are mainly concentrated in the design and implementation phases, and the frequency of barriers grows with the size from micro enterprises to small enterprises, and then it decreases from Small to Mediumlarge enterprises. The industry sector of companies does not imply meaningful differences among frequencies.

Development of a Preliminary Model for Evaluating Occupational Health and Safety Risk Management Maturity in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

“…SMEs do not have at their disposal OHS measurement tools and methods that are adapted to their work environments and scales of operation [8,24]. Among the factors cited to explain the unavailability of tools suitable for measuring their maturity level are insufficient economic, technological and human resources, the adopted managerial mode and efforts oriented towards productivity and quality to the detriment of OHS [26].…”

“…Prevention by design Not specified [83][84][85] Commitment of management Not specified [24,59,79] Worker commitment and participation -Percent response to questionnaires [24,59,78,86] OHS-related behaviour -Number of observations of unsafe or deviant actions [78,87] Compliance with OHS guidelines or regulations -Number of penalties for non-compliance [8,23,40,54,88] OHS inspection -Number of inspections carried out [25,40,79,86] Equipment and preventive maintenance Not specified [25,79] Work setting and situations potentially at risk Not specified [7,8,20,24,79] Evaluation of proactive indicators Not specified [74,79,86] Technology -Degree of integration of technology into the processes [33,89] Budget -The amount allotted to OHS [33,40,59] Workload -Evaluation of workload [90] …”

“…Based on the frequency of injuries and fatalities [6], the workplace appears to be considerably more dangerous in small companies than in large companies [7,8]. In Europe, 82% of work-related injuries or lesions and 90% of those leading to death occur in SMEs [2].…”

“…The proactive indicators mentioned most often in the literature are listed below in Table 1. Perception of OHS risks -Number and frequency of inquiries into staff perception of OHS [25,54,59,76,77] OHS training -Number of hours of training [23,25,33,54,59] Information on OHS risks Not specified [8,33] Organizational/process changes …”

Barriers to occupational health and safety management in small Brazilian enterprises

“…Masi & Cagno (2015) proposed a framework of 27 barriers to OHSMS intervention in small companies and implemented it to owners/managers of small European manufacturers; the top 10 barriers include the follwing: regulation (rigorous legislation and bureaucracy); resources (inadequate dedication of time and inadequate dedication of financial resources); and information (missing or ineffective communication, missing or ineffective information, lack of knowledge of critical situations of the company by employees, lack of technical support from the authorities, and lack of guidelines). Cagno et al (2016) found that external consultant support, availability of knowledge of effective interventions, collaborations with business associations and collaboration with other stakeholders are essential for OHSMS implementation.…”