How Positive is Your Safety Culture?

Perception vs actual

It was interesting to note that 43% of respondents reported feeling unsafe at work compared to the 38% who had experienced a safety incident.

This suggests that feelings of safety at work are not solely based on direct experiences of safety incidents. Perceptions of risk may be influenced by other factors such as workplace culture, environment, or the experiences of colleagues.

Often, the concern is that something might happen; that something “feels scary”.

We can therefore label this as a ‘perceived safety incident’ and while no actual incident has taken place, perceiving, anticipating or feeling unsafe can take its toll in other ways.

Nearly half (47%) of employees reported that their mental health was impacted by feeling unsafe at work.

This finding, from our study, highlights a crucial point: the feeling of being unsafe, even without a physical incident, can lead to serious mental health issues. One respondent shared:

I’m often lone working and have anxiety about visiting certain areas or properties.

Another said:

It badly affected my mental health and made me anxious and depressed, so I had to take time off work.

While debate around the safety profession’s role in wellbeing continues to polarise – many feeling that it should sit squarely with HR – employers can play a role by listening to employees’ concerns.

Some safety professionals are suggesting that those who are experiencing stress, anxiety and depression are likely to be involved in a safety incident at work.

Even if an incident doesn’t occur, safety concerns have other adverse consequences for businesses in the form of absenteeism and presenteeism.

Empowering employees to speak up and call out concerns before negative impacts are felt stems from having a strong safety culture.

Safety blind spots

Our study uncovered a significant gap between workplace safety concerns and how often they are raised with employers.

While 43% of workers told us they have safety concerns and 38% have experienced a safety incident, a striking 83% said they had never expressed any safety concerns to their employer, and when employees did speak up 68% said nothing was done.

This silence creates a critical blind spot for employers. When concerns aren’t voiced, risks remain unaddressed, leaving employees feeling ignored and reluctant to speak up in the future.

Workers’ testimonies shed light on the scale of the problem. One described how their concerns were dismissed:

“I was annoyed that a problem I raised was ignored, and my concern was ignored,”

68% of employees who raised safety concerns said nothing was done in response

Another respondent described an incident where their safety was directly threatened at work, yet their concerns were still minimised by a colleague and their manager:

“I was in work at my desk and a delivery guy came into the office and started being sexually suggestive and telling very explicit jokes. He also said very loudly to a work colleague about how women need a good seeing to and to be ‘put in their place’. I was the only woman there.

I felt very unsafe. When he went, I told my colleague and boss about it and they said, “ah sure he’s only messing”, but it definitely didn’t feel funny to me. Anytime he came after that I locked my door and made him leave his dockets on a shelf outside my office.”

Sadly, other testimonies seem to reveal a wider cultural acceptance of this issue: “Just got on with it.” “Didn’t do anything.” “I just ignore the feeling.” “It’s part of my job.”

However, these unaddressed safety concerns don’t just harm employees, they also affect the business. A workforce that feels unsafe or ignored can suffer from lower productivity, higher absenteeism, and increased staff turnover. For businesses, this translates into higher costs, reputational risk, and even a loss of talent.

Quiet quitters and the impact on productivity

The term ‘quiet quitting’ reflects a real and growing trend in the modern workforce. A symptom of post-pandemic reflection around work/life balance, it is particularly prevalent in the younger generation of workers who continue to work in a role but are disengaged from the company’s culture.

This can manifest in several ways including clocking off as soon as the day ends; no longer volunteering for extra projects; or avoiding tasks outside the official job description.

It’s usually a response to burnout, a lack of recognition or feeling undervalued in an organisation, but lack of safety could also be a contributing factor.

It’s a subtle state, and difficult to identify but a failure to do so can affect a business’ bottom line.

18%, or one in five workers, who felt unsafe reported a drop in productivity

Quiet quitters can leave at any time leading to a high staff turnover if this mentality is prevalent within the workforce. It’s important to try and understand the root cause here, which often comes from a poor company culture that doesn’t value its staff in numerous aspects.

Failing to provide an environment that doesn’t feel safe will only add to this staff disengagement, not just from the quiet quitters but others you might felt were committed to the organisation.

Putting this into perspective, we found that 18% of respondents who had felt unsafe had reported a decrease in their productivity.

This can also be interpreted as one in five workers and if we were to extrapolate this to a larger workforce, the impact of less productivity becomes increasingly substantial.

It affirms that embedding a strong safety ethos can create positive engagement and morale; it can lead to greater staff retention better productivity and can even be a competitive advantage for a business.