A Report on Occupational Health Management in Australian SMEs

This report provides a comprehensive overview of occupational health management within small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Australia. It delves into emerging occupational health issues, with a specific focus on work-related stress (WRS) and occupational diseases (OD). The report examines the factors contributing to WRS, such as sexual harassment, mismatch between skills and job demands, tight deadlines, and workplace interruptions. It also explores various occupational diseases like skin, respiratory, neurological and musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), and their connection to WRS. The legislative requirements related to occupational health hazards are discussed, along with standard Australian industry practices for eliminating or minimizing health hazards. The report concludes with recommendations for future success of Australian OHS interventions, emphasizing the need for proactive measures, workforce support, and a culture of prevention. The research paper is based on literature review focusing on industry as SMEs.

Running Head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
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Healthcare
Occupational health management
(Student details :)
4/10/2019

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Contents
Occupational health management..............................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Emerging Occupational Health Issues in SMEs........................................................................2
Work-related stress (WRS) in SMEs.....................................................................................3
Occupational diseases (OD) in SMEs....................................................................................4
Legislative requirements related to the occupational health hazards.....................................5
Standard Australian Industry practices for eliminating or minimisation health hazards.......6
Recommendations for future success of Australian OHS interventions................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7

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Occupational health management
Introduction
This research paper is based on emerging Occupational Health Issues within small
and medium enterprises (SMEs). In this context, occupational health hazards as well as the
ill-health issues at workplace never receive the required attention. In this way, a
comprehensive focus upon occupational health management is required. Besides, this
discussion is going to address this shortcoming within organisational practice. In addition, the
contemporary workplaces are facing range of emerging issues within the management of
modern occupational health (NOHSAC, 2018). Thus, SMEs have been selected as the chosen
industry and hence one emerging occupational health issue which will be researched within
this essay is work-related stress and diseases (Ogunyomi & Brunning, 2016). Thus, this paper
is going to undertake a critical literature review, focusing on an industry as SMEs. Hence,
emerging occupational diseases as well as stress will be covered in the context of SME
industry within this paper.
Emerging Occupational Health Issues in SMEs
As we know that huge cultural change within the successful management of
occupation health at workplace during recent years has caused so many emerging challenges
for the SMEs. There is numerous health risks associated along with those safety risks for the
employees working at SMEs. However, nature of the health hazards depend upon the core
nature of the industry the employees are working with. For an example, chemical risks within
SMEs are very common (Archer, 2018). Apart from this, exposure to noise can cause hearing
impairment. In addition, exposure to ultraviolet radiations within the workplace or working
on-site in sun-rays exposure can further lead to skin and other types of cancer. In this way,
occupation health is majorly affected by occupational diseases as well as work-related stress
(Monat-Descamps & Deschamps, 2012).

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Source: (Archer, 2018)
Work-related stress (WRS) in SMEs
In general, WRS is experienced by the employees while the demands to the
operational environment exceed the workers’ capability to control them. In addition, WRS is
intense as well as endures for prolonged time then it can harm physical as well as mental
health of the employees (HSE, 2009). Moreover, WRS can be produced through
psychological workplace hazards like organization and management, work-design, low job
control, high job demands and harassment as well as violence at work. On the other hand,
physical health hazards like abnormal temperature, noise can also cause WRS in a large
extent among workforces of Australia (WSH, 2015).
In this context, recent research data is suggesting that 50-60 per cent of all lost
working days are majorly associated with WRS. In this way, there are so many risk factors
which are inter-connected with WRS as follows:
 Sexual harassment and Intimidation: such kinds of activities at workplaces can
considerably and critically affect the mental-wellness of the Australians (Colquitt,
Lepine, Wessaon, & Gellatly, 2011). Hence, there is a huge need of addressing these
workplace health hazards effectively (Archer, 2018).
 Mismatch amid work demands and skills: when the job demands are too high and job
resources in terms of employee’s skills do not get fulfilled then a mismatching occurs
between the two. In this way this unbalance among job demands and job resources

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causes WRS supported by JD-R model of workplace stress (Bakker & Demerouti,
2017).
 Tight Deadlines: in addition, working with a relatively high speed as well as under too
tight deadlines causes WRS at a huge extent (Tjosvold, 2008).
 Unforeseen interruptions at Australian workplaces: constant unpredicted distractions
hamper work and hence generate WRS critically among Australians (MacEachen, et
al., 2010).
 Work-pace: work pace coordination is an essential element while working efficiently
hence work-pace dictated through an external demand or machine-dictated work-pace
affect stress levels at Australian workplaces (World Health Organization, 2017).
In this way, major causes of work-related stress that generates occupational health
hazards depends upon the way work is designed as well as the way into which companies are
managed (WSH Council, 2014). Apart from this, career development goals, individual role at
the workplace, status and pay, home-work interface as well as the interpersonal relationships
are some other sources of occupational stress and hence cause health hazards within
Australian companies (Vargas, 2018).
Occupational diseases (OD) in SMEs
Occupational diseases can be caused because of many reasons at root causes in SMEs.
The concept of OD can be characterized through their connection with a national system of
compensation and recognition. In this context, such recognition needs clear evidences about
work can be the cause of the health issues, as well as contributes significantly to diseases
growth (MacEachen, et al., 2010). In addition, many kinds of diseases such as skin diseases,
respiratory diseases, neurological diseases, musculoskeletal diseases (MSDs), and sensory
organs diseases are majorly generated from occupational health mismanagement (World
Health Organization, 2017). Out of all above occupational health diseases, MSDs are the
most severe and common work-related hazards. In this context, within Australia total 83,159
cases of occupational diseases were reported in the year 2005. Furthermore, all of the
occupational health hazards are strongly inter-related with the WRS per discussed above in
this paper (Vargas, 2018).

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Source: (WSH Council, 2014)
Legislative requirements related to the occupational health hazards
While referring to Work Health and Safety legislation 2011, the present situation in
the Australia is that the Occupational Health and Safety apply correspondingly to every
organisation of Australia (Tjosvold, 2008). On the other hand, some particular sectors have
integrally higher health risks and hence more legislation has been implemented for addressing
their requirements (Schaufeli & Taris, 2014). Additionally, business who utilised the
legislation intervention option involved within the construction industry, recommending that
an increased legislation within SMEs compared to other areas like retail, offered a great
motivation factor. Recent research and Survey evidences have also revealed that, for SMEs, a
lack of alertness exists of what particular occupational health and safety legislation is useful
to their businesses (Monat-Descamps & Deschamps, 2012). Contrary, lack of knowledge
over legislation requirements does not preclude engaging into efforts for improving the
operational environment from the perspective of workplace health and safety (MacEachen, et
al., 2010). Moreover, now days many Australian businesses are taking part in occupational

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health and safety activities, despite knowing actuality of their legislative needs (Bepko &
Mansalis, 2016).
Standard Australian Industry practices for eliminating or minimisation
health hazards
There are some standard Australian industrial practices which are recommendable for
eliminating as well as minimizing workplace health hazards as follows:
 Third-party Supports: for providing personal, practical and more effective health and
safety support, a third party support is being suggested (Bepko & Mansalis, 2016). In
this context, union initiatives within SMEs, trade unions, WSA as well as small
business trade association forums are comes under standard Australian industrial
practices for ensuring a healthy workplace.
 Voluntary Certification: in this context, quality or voluntary certifications are one of
the most efficient ways for ensuring better occupational health and safety practices
within SMEs of Australia (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017).
 Institutional Controls: in this category, institutional control measures like taxation to
regulate use, prohibition of substances along with the utilisation of operational
equipment are covered so as to minimize the health hazards at workplaces (Archer,
2018).
 Info technology: part of information technology like websites have now become an
integral part of occupational health and safety interventions objected at SMEs. In this
context, one major advantage of modern information technologies is anonymity. For
an instance, not providing confidential info about the business helps Australian SMEs
for ensuring work-related safety of their employees (Aggarwal, 2013).
Recommendations for future success of Australian OHS interventions
There are some future recommendations for an OHS intervention to be successful for
Australian SMEs as follows:
 Organizations should focus over all possible health hazards or risks for their
preventions
 Organizations should offer workforce support for free or at moderately low budget
 Organizations should combine occupational health with rest of the organizational
goals

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 Organizations should help for creating an OHS prevention culture at workplace
 Organizations should integrate active interventions with real-world documentation as
well as tools
 Organizations should be action-oriented
 Organizations should be based on trust and long-term relationships
 Organizations should include collaboration, co-operation and harmonisation amid the
business sectors, industry organisations, government agencies as well as the
intermediate role played from OHS advisors
 Organizations should adopt an active involvement of diverse partners within their
implementation and planning of the workplace health policies
 Organizations should measure their adequacy through assessing the requirements
prior the action as well as through carrying out a well-structured evaluation of their
effects later.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this report has successfully generated a review of the literature
regarding Australian SMEs engagement with occupational health and safety practices. In
addition, standard occupational health management practices within Australian industries
particular SMEs have been assessed, evaluated as well as future recommendations have been
suggested for better OSH interventions. Furthermore, this literature review over occupational
health management has successfully drawn the conclusion that all Australian SMEs need to
implement all Workplace Health Regulations released in 2011 strictly for the physical as well
as mental health wellness of their employees.
References
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preventive Methods among Small-scale Agate Industrial Workers. Journal of
Occupational Health, 55(4), 312-317.
Archer, R. (2018). WHS: A Management Guide In Your Workplace (5th ed.). Australia:
Cengage Learning.

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Bakker, A., & Demerouti, E. (2017). Job demands–resources theory: Taking stock and
looking forward. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 273.
Bepko, J., & Mansalis, K. (2016). Common Occupational Disorders: Asthma, COPD,
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Colquitt, J., Lepine, J., Wessaon, M., & Gellatly, I. (2011). Organizational behavior:
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