Differences in occupational health and safety efforts between adopters and non-adopters of Certified Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems in Denmark

Introduction: Certified Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (COHSMS), like OHSAS18001 and its replacement ISO45001, are becoming increasingly widespread all over the world. The function and effectiveness of these systems have become an important question for authorities, companies and researchers.
Objectives: This paper examines differences in OHS efforts in adopters and non-adopters of COHSMS in Denmark.
Methodology: We used a validated national survey questionnaire on workplace management of OHS at work. In total, 1,894 enterprises participated in the survey, where 509 enterprises were registered with a COHSMS, and 1385 enterprises were not. We only included enterprises (local unit of the enterprise)
with 35 or more employees in the study. Using factor analysis, we identified four factors related to the systematic (process related) approach to OHS management, and eight factors related to specific (content related) OHS management, such as efforts to prevent accident or to improve the psychosocial
working environment. Cronbach’s alpha was about 0.7 or higher for all factors, indicating high internal consistency. We assessed the level of efforts for those 12 factors on a scale between 0 and 100 and compared the results between adopters and non-adopters of COHSMS, thereby getting a proxy for
their OHS management performance.
Results (tentative): Enterprises which had adopted COHSMS, scored significantly better with respect to 10 out of the 12 key factors compared to non-adopters of COHSMS. For the last two key factors, there was not a significant difference between adopters and non-adopters.
Discussion: It is a limitation that the study is cross-sectional.
Conclusion: Overall, this study shows that companies with COHSMS have a better OHS performance compared to companies without COHSMS. This indicates that COHSMS have a positive impact on OHS.