For the SME, Health & Safety can be a minefield. SMEs are still lagging behind larger enterprises in fulfilling the obligatory regulations in the field of health and safety. Although a risk assessment is compulsory, the scarce information available on the number of enterprises conducting it, shows that in Europe in 1997 only two out of ten very small enterprises conducted a risk assessment and risk evaluation against almost seven out of ten enterprise with 250 or more employees.
Health and Safety at Work in Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) presents a particular challenge for a number of reasons. On the one hand, a large majority of the workforce is employed by SMEs. Each SME could argue that its resource to protect and promote health at work is much less than that of a large enterprise and therefore it could not aspire to the same standard.
However, there may be other reasons for the difficulties perceived in relation to SMEs.... Whatever the reasons, the consequences appear to be significant, thus the rates of fatal injury and of amputation injury in small manufacturing workplaces (those with fewer than 50 employees) are quoted as being double those in large workplaces (200 or more employees).
To help SMEs manage their risk assessment, we have developed a strategic partnership with Corporate Risk Systems Limited (CRS) who are specialists in developing performance through training and consultancy. CRS design and deliver a wide range of high value, high quality training and development programmes. Either certified or non-certified, these courses are designed to help SMEs develop best practice and comply with the law.
