The level of occupational safety and health promotion in Czech family manufacturing enterprises

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the level of occupational safety and health (OSH) promotion in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which is currently a hot topic in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. SMEs are very often family enterprises in the Czech Republic. The goal of the research, conducted on a sample of 1056 respondents, was to find out how Czech family manufacturing enterprises approach the promotion of OSH. Empirical research methods were used and data were processed using statistical methods. Chi-square test was used to identify the specifics in manufacturing enterprises to determine the relationship between OSH principles or processes and the size of the enterprise. An analysis of the surveyed enterprises was done regarding their KPIs in the field of OSH. To understand changes in the KPIs significance before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, Wilcoxon signed rank test was used. All of the KPIs were tested with ANOVA analysis to find out, whether the importance of each indicator is related to the size of the enterprise. The most important finding is that although the situation regarding principles of OSH promotion is not good in the surveyed enterprises, they still manage to implement OSH promotion processes very well. The research can provide guidance on how to assess the level of OSH promotion in such SMEs and can help to define activities to improve OSH promotion. The paper may be beneficial for practitioners involved in OSH promotion and in another manufacturing SMEs.