Special Award for Small Business
Awarded to a small business (fewer than 20 employees or full-time equivalents) demonstrating an exemplary health and safety program, innovation, and proven injury prevention and/or return to work track record.
This may include, but is not limited to, any of the following:
- Solutions to identified risks
- A demonstrated commitment to safety
- Improved consultation
- Training programs
- Toolbox meetings where occupational health and safety is discussed; or
- Any other practice that has improved occupational health and safety performance in your business and helped employees who are injured return to work in a safe and timely manner.
Assessment criteria
To enter in this category, your submission needs to detail the following:
- What is/are the workplace health and safety practice(s) that have been implemented?
- How did you identify the need for the health and safety practice(s)? For example:
- Did you talk to your employees?
- Did you do a walk around inspection?
- Did you review past records?
- Did you identify a hazard?
- To what extent were employees and/or organizations or other people involved in the development of the health and safety practice(s) in your workplace? How did your employees contribute to this process?
- Where hazards have been addressed, how did you identify them and assess the risk or likelihood they may result in an injury or illness?
- How did you consider all possible risk control measures when developing or improving the health and safety practice(s) in your workplace? Control measures may include:
- Eliminating the risk
- Substitution
- Engineering controls
- Administrative controls
- Personal protective equipment
- How did you record your health and safety work practices? How can employees assess them?
- How did you communicate to employees about the health and safety work practices? For example, how were they trained or made aware of these practices?
- What effect have these practices had on your business? For example:
- Health and safety
- Productivity
- Morale
- Consultation
- A copy of your organization’s occupational health and safety code of practice as required under Section 38 of the Occupational Health & Safety Act.
- A photo of posted occupational health and safety materials in your workplace as required under Sections 9(2), 37, 38 and 39 of the Occupational Health & Safety Act.
Award finalists will be visited by members of the judging panel to verify claims made in the proposals and gain further context.