Health Environment Safety & Social Manangement in Enterprises
Graphic: Healthy environment copyright epaw.ltd

 

Why HESSME [3]

 

Flexibility

Many Small & Medium Entreprises are successful because they are dynamic and flexible and because the owners and workers have welded their aspirations into a common approach. They find more flexibility enables better response to changing circumstances. HESSME can provide the support they need on the road to deal with the changing conditions in health and the environment.

Small enterprises are more dangerous in relation to serious injury than their larger counterparts, but less dangerous when based on all types of reported injury. Small companies often find it more difficult than larger companies to provide any extra facilities. Larger companies are less flexible in overcoming the barriers that may have built up between health, environment and safety and quality departments. Nature knows none of the same boundaries, contaminants easily moving between work and the world, between land, water and air.

HESSME will not bog you down with piles of paper and procedures. It concentrates on the key elements of making risk assessments in order to set targets for action on health and the environment.

 

HESSME takes lessons from larger organisations and puts them in the context of a small company. This leads to savings in a number of areas, that previously you would have paid for without realising the connections and that they can be controlled in one process. A system that measures and monitors well-being can detect losses in the system not previously accounted for. There may be hidden costs of sickness, or the true costs of waste may be 10 times higher than previously realised.

Support

Small companies are often in a good position to receive funds and support from outside organisations.

Here are some places to go for funds

ILO Seed Programme helps small companies improve job quality and business prospects in small enterprises.
SALTSA Programme for Working Life
EU Funding
EU Network for Workplace Health Promotion
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work in Bilbao


©World Health Organisation 2002
Authors: Dr Charlie Clutterbuck & Dr Bogdan Baranski