Health and safety is an issue businesses of all sizes cannot afford to ignore but, if research carried out by YouGov on behalf of HSE consultant Seton is anything to go by, is something many could still improve on.
It spoke to employees and senior decision makers at 525 small and medium enterprises about the subject and 22 percent (excluding those operating as sole traders) stated there is just one person, or no one at all, at their organisation that has received any kind of workplace health and safety training.
Companies named a number of things they said were preventing them from providing a greater level of health and safety, with 23 percent suggesting that one factor holding them back is time. Another issue is costs, with 19 percent of the total respondents saying this was a problem.
The research also indicated some differences between how males and females think about health and safety. With 22 percent of men suggesting too much bureaucracy was stopping their company from offering better care health and safety care, in comparison to 14 per cent of the women spoken to.
Of the organisations that took part 32 percent admitted there had been at least once incident in the last 12 months that could have been avoided had the correct health and safety equipment been used or guidelines and procedures followed correctly.
The most common accidents to occur were cuts and burns, with 11 percent of firms stating one of these had happened to someone in their workplace. Six per cent had an employee suffer a trip, slip or fall as a result of unsafe actions, while the same percentage had to contend with a vehicle accident.
When it comes to the area of the UK that’s most content with health and safety, Wales has the best rate of success. 41 percent of employees from the country said they felt their employer “completely met” health and safety needs. The South West came bottom at just 23 percent.
