A Framework for Assessing the Performance of Occupational Health and Safety Practices in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Abstract

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) currently face substantial challenges in maintaining their operating standards. Implementing occupational health and safety practices (OHSPs) can be an important strategy for success. This empirical study assessed the performance of OHSPs in SMEs. A framework was developed comprising four performance indicators: operations, customer satisfaction, finance, and employee satisfaction. Data were collected from 35 SMEs in the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE) in Kotri, Sindh, Pakistan, through a self-administered questionnaire and convenience sampling. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess data reliability, yielding a coefficient of 0.85 and indicating acceptable reliability. The data were then analyzed using descriptive statistics and intercorrelations among the components. Most SMEs reported improved performance, including greater employee motivation (94.2%), target achievement (85.7%), timely order delivery (91.4%), product quality (80%), ease of supervision (57.1%), company reputation (94.3%), profitability (60%), productivity (91.5%), and sales (57.1%). Overall, the SMEs reported improvements across all four key performance areas, primarily following the effective implementation of OHSPs. Intercorrelation analysis also indicated positive relationships among all factors, most of which were statistically significant at the 0.05 level. These findings demonstrate that implementing OHSPs can support sustainable growth and promote healthy lives and decent work, thereby contributing to SDGs 3 and 8.