Workplace Safety
• The owner is the person primarily responsible for workplace safety in three of four small businesses. Designated employees are responsible 14 percent of the time. As businesses grow larger, primary responsibility for safety shifts from employers to designated employees.
• Forty-three (43) percent of small-business owners believe the greatest potential threat of an employee work-related injury or fatality lies with workplace accidents. But 38 percent believe it lies with traffic accidents, and 4 percent workplace violence. Fourteen (14) percent volunteer that none of the three present potential danger. Owners of larger firms are more likely to cite workplace accidents as are owners of firms in more dangerous industries (excepting transportation).
• Work-related driving is common among small-business employees. About five of eight small firms employ people who drive as part of their jobs. Fifty-seven (57) percent of owners screen applicants for jobs with driving responsibilities for prior moving traffic violations, drunk driving convictions, etc. Sixteen (16) percent conduct driver’s training or send employees to places that do.
• Seventy (70) percent of small businesses offer free entry to their public areas; 23 percent screen people through various methods. Sixteen (16) percent use security cameras to protect employees while 47 percent say that they check the background of job applicants for violent behavior.
• Seventy-seven (77) percent of small-business owners including 90 percent of those employing 10 or more people personally conduct or have someone else conduct periodic safety inspections. Well over 90 percent conduct them in the manufacturing and construction industries, industries statistically among the most dangerous. Inspections occur least frequently in firms located in comparatively safe industries.
• Twelve (12) percent of small businesses have an employee safety committee; 55 percent have written safety rules; 60 percent provide safety information during a new employee’s orientation. Larger, small firms are substantially more likely to have each of the three than smaller, small firms.
• Nineteen (19) percent of owners report taking some type of safety training or seminar during the last 12 months. Of those not participating, 32 percent say that they would be “highly likely” to attend a half-day program if they received a “break” on their workers’ compensation insurance.
• Twelve (12) percent requested at least one on-site safety consultation in the last five years. Consultations most frequently were given by private engineering or consulting firms, or insurance companies. The most common reason for a request was a routine safety inspection and the second most common to ensure regulatory compliance.
• Twenty-six (26) percent of all small employers and 53 percent of those employing 20 or more people say that they received an OSHA or a state OSHA inspection in the last five years.
• Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) may be engaged by OSHA as an intermediary to assist small employers with their workplace safety problems. Twelve (12) percent report direct experience with an SBDC and over half say that they have heard the program.
