Optimisation of work health and safety in small and micro-business in NSW rapid evidence assessment

Small and micro businesses are important contributors to Australia’s economy and make up the majority of businesses in Australia. However, when it comes to work health and safety (WHS), small and micro businesses are being left behind. Despite experiencing higher rates of WHS incidents, small and microbusinesses have rarely been the focus of research, policy, and legislation, and their unique needs are often not considered in attempts to optimise WHS outcomes.

Small businesses, by definition, are characterised by fewer employees and limited resources, often with a more informal/egalitarian workplace meaning their WHS needs differ from larger entities. Specifically, responsibility for WHS is more heavily placed on individuals – and the business owners and key decision makers – than groups of individuals. These businesses also face unique barriers to WHS, including financial and resource limitations, a lack of knowledge or expertise in WHS, informal approaches to WHS, and difficulty gaining access to sufficient or quality WHS training. As such, small and micro business owners often require additional support to identify and translate regulations into the context of their businesses, as well as help to implement these in a low-cost and time efficient manner. It is imperative, therefore, to look at the precise needs of small and micro businesses in isolation when it comes to optimising WHS outcomes.

To better understand how to effectively intervene to improve WHS outcomes in small and micro businesses in a way that maximises efficiency and return on investment, we must first identify key gaps in the existing literature. The objective of this Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) was to review the relevant academic and grey literature to validate the hypothesised barriers to implementation and enhancement of WHS processes in small and micro businesses and identify interventions that have been used to address these barriers. This REA was structured to answer three broad questions, as follows:

1. What is the current context for work health and safety in small and micro businesses in NSW and Australia?
2. What are the drivers and barriers to the adoption and implementation of work health and safety practices in small and micro businesses?
3. What interventions have been implemented to improve work health and safety outcomes in small and micro businesses?

Methodology

A rapid review of the literature was undertaken using a clearly defined search strategy, agreed with the Centre for Work Health and Safety (Centre). Various databases and search engines were consulted including Google Scholar, federal and state government websites, open web searches, and the reference lists of identified sources. Search terms included “work health and safety”, “occupational health and safety”, “small business”, “micro business “, “intervention”, and “training”. Records were identified and assessed for relevance against key inclusion criteria. A total of 64 records have been referenced throughout the rapid evidence assessment, including peer reviewed journal articles, policy documents, grey literature reports, websites, and other documents.

It should be noted that this is a rapid review of the literature, aimed at eliciting the key insights only; it is not intended to be a systematic, detailed, review.

What is the current context for work health and safety in small and micro businesses in NSW and Australia?

To effectively intervene to improve WHS practices across small and micro businesses in NSW, we first examined the current policy and regulatory landscape within NSW and Australia. Doing so allowed us to identify the gaps in the application of existing policies and regulations within small and micro businesses that will, in turn, guide the direction of what more needs to be done.

The key findings were that Australia’s existing WHS legislation does not directly address the WHS challenges faced by small and micro businesses, which has created a regulatory gap between small entities and larger businesses. While, at a policy level, Safe Work Australia’s WHS Strategy 2023-2033 recognises that small and micro businesses need additional support, including tailored guidance and instruction to offset the fewer resources they have, little has been done to address this. Further research is needed to inform the development of a robust framework for WHS in small and micro businesses in NSW

What are the drivers and barriers to the adoption and implementation of work health and safety practices in small and micro businesses?

In this section, we explored the drivers and barriers to small and micro businesses optimising to WHS as identified by the literature. The drivers and barriers that were identified related to both proactive optimisation activities, as well as those that are more reactive.

Research on WHS for small and micro businesses highlighted several barriers to optimising WHS outcomes. While there was additional nuance to these, broadly these related to:

• Policy and regulation: the lack of tailored policy and regulations means there is no tailored framework for small and micro businesses to operate within, despite the expectation that all businesses, regardless of size, must operate in accordance with the model WHS regulation.
• Resource scarcity (i.e., financial, knowledge, personnel): the multifaceted lack of resources within small and micro businesses means that the capacity for WHS is often low.
• Social and spatial proximity: small and micro businesses are often characterised by proximity, which can result in higher psychosocial safety, but often poses risks to WHS due to a “status quo” approach and difficulty in suggesting improvements.
• Informal approaches: WHS in small and micro businesses is often driven by an informal and common-sense approach, as opposed to more formal processes.
• Owner/manager driven: WHS is often driven by the owners or key decision makers and is rarely a core or sole task, which means it is often deprioritised.
• Underrepresented workers’ voice: the voice of workers is rarely represented through formal arrangements, and the informal representations are often unsystematic and are often not autonomous.

There was limited literature that discussed the drivers of WHS in small businesses; however, three key drivers of improved WHS were identified, including:

• WHS climate: employee perceptions of how committed their employer is to WHS, which in turn impacts WHS outcomes, in that when employers are perceived to have a strong focus on WHS, employees are more likely to autonomously behave in ways that align with their businesses WHS requirements.
• Business owner or manager values: the sense of responsibility that drives business owners and managers to implement WHS in the absence of targeted regulation or guidelines.
• Manager agility: the ability of managers to adapt and respond dynamically to WHS issues and adopt existing practices (or lack thereof) to negate negative impact and / or improve future outcomes.

An important question for the Centre was how WHS requirements differed for CALD small and micro business owners, and workers. This review found that the research was lacking in this respect. Although little explored how cultural and linguistic diversity may act as a barrier to optimal WHS, there was some evidence that suggested language may act as a further barrier to achieving good WHS outcomes for CALD workers.

What interventions have been implemented to improve work health and safety outcomes in small and micro businesses?

In this section, we outlined WHS interventions that have been identified in the literature and where possible, focussed on those that have been evaluated for efficacy. This REA considers any, and all, small and micro businesses from higher physical risk to lower physical risk environments, and WHS from a physical, mental, and emotional perspective. Critically, the published evidence regarding WHS interventions within small and micro businesses was very limited and often did not differentiate by businesses size or industry, making it difficult to determine the efficacy of a particular intervention within these categories. That said, several successful WHS interventions were identified in published literature, including:

• training, education, and coaching,
• stretching and exercise programs,
• interventions to strengthen WHS culture, and
• online interventions.

In addition to WHS interventions that have been recognised and evaluated within the published international literature, there is also a broad range of WHS interventions available to small and micro businesses within Australia. These include:

• financial incentives/rebates,
• toolkits,
• checklists and self-assessment tools,
• information and guides,
• training course,
• coaching and advisory services, and
• events

The literature also highlighted several factors that are believed to contribute to the success of interventions, including leadership style, multicomponent interventions, support from third parties with implementation, and confidence in interventions.

Several general principles for WHS interventions were also identified, including:

• a focus on the organisational level rather than the individual level,
• cost-effectiveness, and
• the use of multicomponent programs that aim to address a range of WHS issues rather than single component programs that only address one.

This section highlighted the need for further research exploring the efficacy of WHS interventions in small businesses, as well as a clearer understand of the needs of small businesses to inform the development of future interventions.

Conclusion and implications

Implications for future research (gaps in understanding)

This REA has been a useful exercise for identifying the gaps in understanding regarding the drivers and barriers for enhancing WHS in small and micro businesses, as well as for identifying existing interventions which attempt to overcome these barriers. Crucially, much of the literature only briefly addressed small and micro businesses or only included them as a study group, meaning they have rarely been the focus of research. As such, the voices and needs of small business owners are unlikely to have been accurately or entirely reflected in the literature to date. Primary research will therefore be undertaken in phase three of this project to better understand how we can effectively intervene in small and micro businesses to enhance WHS practices, in a way that meets the needs of business owners. The goals for this research are to:

• Provide a clearer picture of the current state of WHS knowledge and practices among small and micro business owners and key decisions makers and explore the effectiveness of WHS laws and regulation for smaller businesses.
• Develop a better understanding of enablers and motivators of WHS in small and micro businesses.
• Validate the guiding principles for WHS interventions in the setting of small and micro businesses.
• Identify how we can support CALD business owners and key decision makers to mitigate increased WHS risks and support them to implement effective WHS practices in their businesses.

In addition, future research (beyond the scope of this project) could explore the effectiveness and efficacy of WHS interventions in small and micro businesses, specifically to give a more detailed understanding of the landscape.

Implications for developing interventions to enhance WHS in small and micro businesses

The disproportionately high rate of WHS incidents in small and micro businesses suggests that existing interventions are likely not very effective which one might hypothesise is because they are not tailored to businesses of this size and their unique circumstances. This REA has not only identified gaps in understanding of WHS in small and micro businesses that ideally must be addressed via primary research, but it also pointed to important considerations for the development of an intervention in phase 4 of this project. These include consideration of the cost burden for businesses with limited financial resources, the psychosocial characteristics of small workplaces, unfamiliarity with WHS, effective communication, and the increased responsibility and influence of owners and managers when there are few employees. With these in mind, we make several recommendations and highlight practical considerations for the development and implementation of WHS interventions in small and micro businesses. Specifically, that future interventions should:

• Focus on building WHS climate and culture.
• Involve WHS leadership training among owners and key decision makers.
• Provide practical examples of how the regulations apply within small and micro businesses.
• Include options for tailored resources and support for CALD business owners.

The findings also highlighted several practical considerations for designing interventions for small and micro businesses. Future interventions must:

• Be low cost and place little burden on resourcing of the business.
• Involve an active learning or reflective component.
• Target the organisation level, as opposed to the individual.
• Be multi-component, rather than single focus.
• Involve partnerships between small businesses and trade unions or chambers of commerce in the design of interventions to support implementation.
• Explore a web-based approach to implementation.

Read the rapid evidence assessment (PDF, 954.14 KB).