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range of products small businesses use to assessments, better communication and more

assist with staff health.’ OSH inspections.
Rebecca says digitalisation and wellbeing
Emerging technologies go hand in hand, with the former having the
RESOURCES
Another impact of COVID-19 was the rapid potential to ease workloads. ‘We have grown so
acceleration of digitalisation, with the much that many of our existing processes have
Health and safety audits:

emergence of technologies like artificial become bulky. Manually scanning documents,
beingwelltogether.org
intelligence, big data and advanced robotics for example, can put additional pressure on SMEs health and wellbeing
bringing both opportunities and risks for people. If we can digitalise tasks, policies and guide: bit.ly/
workers and employers managing OSH. the way we exchange information, we can have Bupa-SME-health-insurance
Research conducted by YouGov on behalf of a positive impact on managing stress levels Specialist advice
IONOS (2022), one of Europe’s largest cloud and demands on employees.’ for small businesses:
and hosting service providers, found that since She says this is one of the most important tinyurl.com/w4f3h4p6
the pandemic, 76% of UK SMEs considered challenges facing small businesses, adding: Health and safety basics:
hse.gov.uk/simple-
digitalisation important for the future viability ‘You can have all the procedures, policies and
health-safety
of the business. equipment in place, but if you’re relying on
The European Agency for Safety and human input then that human needs to be in

Health at Work underlines key opportunities the right place mentally to function effectively.
for OSH (EU-OSHA, 2019). For example, ‘In some ways, it’s easier to have an impact
by using technology to relieve workers of in an SME. It’s about personal development

repetitive tasks, or by offering more effective and having important conversations to For references, see

OSH training, advanced workplace risk support people when they’re struggling.’ ioshmagazine.SME-challenges

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