Are Safety Concerns Being Taken Seriously?

How often are safety incidents happening?

In our survey, 38% of respondents told us they had experienced a safety incident over the last five years.

For the purposes of our study, we classified a safety incident as one of the following:

verbal or physical abuse from a member of the public;
injury during a physical task;
slipping, tripping or falling;
falling ill or experiencing a medical emergency;
sexual harassment, stalking or harassment;
no phone signal or poor connectivity.

38% experienced a safety incident over the last five years

Retail was heavily cited here, with 67% of respondents reporting they had encountered one or more types of incidents.

Specifically, 22% said they had received physical or verbal abuse from the public.

Another public-facing sector, hospitality, scored highly in this section, with 58% of our sample telling us they had experienced one or more safety incidents, with 20% also suffering verbal or physical abuse from the public.

One respondent in our survey shared:

“I work in hospitality…. abuse from customers is something that happens often.”

Other verticals in our survey showing high numbers of safety incidents were transport and logistics (51%); healthcare and social work (49%); construction (38%), and education (31%).

Both healthcare and social work, and education sectors indicated that physical or verbal abuse from the public was the most common safety incident they had faced.

We also found that those who are entirely working away from a fixed setting (e.g. community nurses, delivery drivers, etc.) are the most likely to experience a safety incident, with 56% reporting an incident.

Of these, 1 in 5 were serious incidents of verbal or physical abuse.

Supporting testimonies suggest that abuse has become so consistently high in certain roles that it’s become expected and normalised. This is reflected in first-hand accounts from employees:

"Being abused is a constant part of my job,"

"Abuse from the public is an everyday occurrence,"

These findings highlight a serious issue for employers: when abuse is seen as “part of the job,” it can impact recruitment, retention, and staff wellbeing.

Organisations need to consider what measures they can take to make employees feel safer when faced with these incidents and actively challenge the idea that abuse is an unavoidable part of certain roles.