Workers in small businesses have higher rates of work-related injuries and fatalities than those in larger businesses, even within the same sector. This is often thought to be due to a lack of knowledge or resources to manage health and safety.
In response, research to date has looked into programs or policies to help small businesses start managing health and safety. However, the earlier the point of intervention in the lifecycle of a business, the thinking goes, the more that incidents can be prevented.
“As soon as they hire someone, a business owner or the person responsible for the day-to-day operations should be ready to manage the health and safety risks posed to that employee,” says Institute for Work & Health (IWH) Scientist Dr. Lynda Robson.
In a new IWH study, Robson and the project’s co-lead, IWH Scientist Dr. Dwayne Van Eerd, wanted to know what kind of programs or policies exist that are specifically aimed at helping new businesses set up their health and safety practices.
From initial searches in the academic research literature, however, it was clear there was not much research out there on the topic. To expand their search, they used an adapted evidence synthesis method called an environmental scan. This method expands typical searches beyond only peer-reviewed studies to also include non-peer-reviewed documents, websites and interviews. But when the search was expanded to these other sources, Van Eerd and Robson found very little information there either.
The few interventions they did find over their searches were mainly aimed at small businesses.
“Not all small businesses are new, but most new businesses are small,” says Van Eerd. “That’s why we also searched for interventions that exist for small businesses which could likely be applied early in their lifecycle.”
What types of OHS interventions exist for small or new businesses?
From the search, the research team turned up 20 documents, mostly from the peer-reviewed literature, about 24 OHS programs or policies for small businesses that could possibly be applied early on when starting the business. Only one of these documents was related to an intervention designed specifically for new businesses.
“The results of our search confirmed that there is a lack of evidence, whether in the academic literature or elsewhere online about programs or policies for health and safety in new businesses,” says van Eerd.
The researchers categorized the interventions they found for small businesses based on the approaches they took to encourage OHS management. The most common approaches are outlined below:
- Education: These were programs aimed at providing information to small business about OHS management. Most (16 out of 24) programs used this approach as the primary tactic, and some used it in combination with others.
- Enablement: These programs aimed to help increase capacity or reduce barriers to improving OHS. They involved on-site consultations and coaching, tools for risk assessments, and in some cases, financial support for equipment or services. Sixteen programs used this approach.
- Training: Whether in-person or online, training for workers or management focused on enhancing skills in risk assessments, stress management, leadership, and OHS management. It was the third most common approach, used in eight programs.
- Persuasion: Programs that used persuasion aimed to induce positive or negative emotion as a way to convince small businesses to take OHS management steps. This often involved conducting risk assessments and making recommendations of how to address the risks. Seven programs used persuasion primarily, and seven used it in combination with education or enablement.
Less common approaches included restructuring the social environment (for example, facilitating working groups or training sessions with peers), role modeling of health and safety leadership behaviours, offering incentives, and using coercion (for example, imposing rules and regulations).
The case for using a combination of approaches
The single intervention that focused on new businesses was aimed at promoting proper ventilation in Boston-area nail salons to reduce chemical exposures to workers. It included a combination of approaches to achieve this goal. Public health authorities in the city had been using educational outreach to inform salons about these hazards and how to manage them. After six years of outreach with limited success, they then changed the regulations and business licensing rules to require new salons to install the correct ventilation before opening. That led to greater success.
“Many interventions we found had combinations of more than one approach,” says Robson. “When it comes to strategies used in policies, some research suggests that the best results may come from combining informational approaches, such as education and training, with incentives and regulations. We didn’t see incentives or regulations used as often, so it might be worth considering them for new businesses.”
Interviewees offer suggestions for reaching new businesses
The researchers also interviewed 11 individuals from Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia, who had experience with OHS for small businesses. They held roles in worker’s compensation, health and safety services, government and research.
In the interviews, participants spoke of similar intervention types as those found in the document search. But interviewees more often mentioned a focus on reaching businesses early in their life cycle to raise their awareness of OHS.
Interviewees noted that small businesses were hard to reach because of the sheer number of them and the difficulty in finding them. To help find new businesses, they suggested leveraging relationships with intermediary organizations (such as chambers of commerce or health and safety associations) that have established relationships with small businesses.
Some interviewees also noted that there are some free, virtual tools available for small or new businesses. These include sources like one-pagers, newsletters, podcasts or webinars. Participants said these tools could help reduce the financial and time barriers businesses face when getting started with OHS management.
What factors might help new businesses start managing OHS?
To expand on this work, Robson and IWH Scientist Dr. Basak Yanar are now conducting a study which surveys new businesses about the steps they’ve taken towards managing OHS and the factors that may help or hinder them from taking such steps. You can hear Robson present the initial findings from this study at her IWH Speaker Series presentation on April 21, 2026. Register here.