The institution encourages enterprises to participate in prevention programmes by offering financial incentives.
Examples of financial incentives include “bonus-malus systems” or reward schemes that are applied in addition to risk-related contributions.
The institution applies a risk-based approach by linking each employer’s insurance contribution to the probability of incidents (occupational accidents and occupational diseases) in their workplace.
The probability calculation takes into account the frequency, severity and cost of insurance cases within the sector of economic activity in which the employer operates.
Economic incentives in occupational safety and health refer to ways of rewarding enterprises for high levels of safety and health at work. While the government can reward an enterprise for improving its occupational safety and health performance by lowering its tax rates, social security institutions can use various means, including economic incentives, to reflect the safety and health performance of the enterprises they cover.
This part of the Guidelines describes prevention programmes which can be conducted by social security institutions, provided that the legal and institutional frameworks are in place.
The institution identifies the target groups to whom the prevention services are offered and their specific needs in prevention.
This enables the institution to produce well-focused prevention products for its target groups.
The institution has an adequate and reliable reporting system for occupational accidents and suspected cases of occupational disease.
This is an indispensable tool for data collection and data analysis. It enables the institution to conduct targeted prevention activities based on identified occupational risks and contributes to the evaluation of prevention activities by comparing longitudinal data from interventions.
To support its targeted prevention programme, the institution has a functional infrastructure and financial resources for consumables.
Relevant consumables include office equipment, transport for field staff, laboratory equipment and other, related expenses.
The institution has an appropriate human resources policy to support its prevention programme.
A sound human resources policy will define the technical, legal and social competences required to conduct a successful prevention programme, address the need for qualification of existing staff (through training), identify knowledge gaps within the institution that may be compensated for through recruitment of external experts, and allocate adequate staff to the prevention department.
The institution provides a sustainable financial basis for setting up a successful and effective prevention programme. The board and management take the necessary decisions to provide the required financial resources.
The board defines a prevention strategy to provide both internal and external guidance.
