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8287376 Insights from 10 years of research on the effectiveness of occupational health and safety management system programs: an updated analysis of the certificate of recognition program in British Columbia, Canada

oemed · 2025-10-06 · canonical JSON source

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Objective Building on a decade of research on the effectiveness of occupational health and safety management system certification programs across Canada, the objective of this study was to conduct an updated evaluation of the Certificate of Recognition (COR) program on firm work injury rates in British Columbia (BC), Canada, and determine if COR firms are associated with greater injury rate reductions compared to similar non-COR firms, and whether the findings differ between internally and externally audited firms.Material and Methods Using COR registration, firm-, and claim-level data from the workers’ compensation board of BC (WorkSafeBC), the effect of becoming newly COR-certified on firm injury rates was assessed using a matched difference-in-differences study design with population-averaged negative binomial regression models, overall, by audit type (internal vs. external), and sector.Results A total of 3,100 certified firms were matched with 2,964 non-certified firms during the years 2010 to 2021. Firms that became certified experienced a greater reduction in their lost-time injury rate during the years after their first certification year (RR: 0.91; 95 CI: 0.85-0.98). Stratified analysis showed that the overall effectiveness was being primarily driven by large, externally audited, firms in the manufacturing sector (RR: 0.76, 95% CI: 0.64-0.89). Imprecisely estimated reductions were observed for small, internally audited firms in transportation (RR: 0.82; 95% CI: 0.57-1.18), and primary resources sectors (RR: 0.85; 95% CI: 0.62-1.16).Conclusion While the COR program is still effective in reducing firm injury rates, its effectiveness has diminished over time and is not equal across all sectors and sizes of firm. Continual assessment and improvement of the program is important to ensure ongoing impact. Furthermore, through using more rigorous cohort restrictions and matching strategies, the findings suggest that effectiveness observed in previous evaluations may have been driven by the selection process of firms into the COR program.