Dear Colleagues,

The New Year has begun as the old one ended. COVID-19 still determines how we live and communicate, forcing us to find new and creative ways to do both. Digital media has helped us maintain the global connection we need for the exchange of knowledge and experience on the topics of safety, health, and well-being at work. We are grateful that the Special Commission on Prevention’s (SCP) eNewsletter is in place to efficiently communicate the latest work by our prevention sections and partners in occupational safety and health, especially related to COVID-19.

In these difficult times, the SCP eNewsletter delivers important information related to workplace COVID-19 prevention. In our second issue, we introduce some new COVID-19 prevention tools, other new media products, and share news about a number of exciting virtual information events that are emerging to keep the occupational safety and health community connected while the pandemic restricts our in-person meetings and travel.

Of crucial importance during this time is communication with SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises.) As SMEs make up the majority of employers worldwide, they are the backbone of our economy worldwide. With fewer resources, SMEs are under even greater stress than large organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Special Commission for Prevention uses its website www.safety-work.org to reach out to SMEs using the Vision Zero approach with messages specifically tailored to SME needs.

I would like to introduce two products that we consider especially important for SMEs. The first is the new ISSA Guide Vision Zero: 7 Golden Rules for Small Businesses. The guide is based on the ISSA Guide VISION ZERO: 7 Golden Rules for Zero Accidents and Healthy Work. It has been especially prepared for the needs of small businesses, where the employer is solely responsible for managing the safety, health and well-being of employees. The guide reinforces the importance of employer’s demonstrating personal safety, health and well-being as a pro-active role model behavior for the business’ workers. Thanks to the great support of the ISSA prevention sections. The guide is currently available in English, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Romanian, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

The second product is the ISSA Guide Vision Zero: Proactive Leading Indicators. We encourage our Vision Zero partners to actively engage in disseminating this guide to SMEs. The guide is a valuable tool for SMEs. Internally, it can be used to improve safety, health and wellbeing. Externally, it can be used for benchmarking external business relations and supply chains. The guide is available in English and German, and is currently being translated into French, Japanese and Spanish.

My special thanks go to our working group colleagues for the creation of these targeted and very useful tools.

Please share both guides with your networks!

Take care and stay optimistic.

Martina