Benefits for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

Good OSH can play a major role in helping small enterprises maintain and enhance their business performance.

Small enterprises have the most to lose through poor OSH standards, but they also have the most to gain.

There are 23 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the EU, employing over 100 million people . However, SMEs record an over-proportional 82% of all occupational injuries, rising to about 90% for fatal accidents .

60% of companies experiencing a disruption lasting more than 9 days go out of business .

Increasingly too, good OSH is essential in winning new business.

Clients in every sector are expecting ever-higher OSH standards of the enterprises they interact with. This is due to the higher priority they are giving to their own OSH performance and reporting.

OSH performance standards are increasingly being written into public and private sector contracts. Selection and appointment of enterprises is increasingly dependent on OSH performance.

Small enterprises can expect the following to be written either explicitly into their contracts, and to be routinely assessed and monitored:

• Evidence of effective OSH policies and procedures
• Routine risk assessment and risk control programmes
• Details of recent or impending OSH prosecutions and related OSH enforcement actions
• Statistical breakdown on all relevant OSH related accidents and incidents
• Details on any current or impending OSH-related claims.

This is now regarded as the basic information that many clients are requesting: increasingly we are seeing more comprehensive evidence of OSH performance being demanded.