Last year, more employees worldwide benefited from safe and healthy work environments. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate of workplace injuries and illnesses in the U.S. reached its lowest level in two decades, with an 8.4% decrease in non-fatal cases from 2022.
Compliance played a crucial role in this success as companies worked to meet regulatory demands and avoid penalties and litigation. Collaborative efforts between government, labor and the private sector helped reduce injuries and provided a healthier workplace.
However, according to the latest Sphera Health and Safety Survey Report for 2025, more companies are counting on people over compliance, empowering their workforce with the tools and support needed to cultivate a holistic and proactive health and safety culture that cover all employees.
According to the survey, last year more organizations equipped their teams with comprehensive and holistic risk management and predictive tools than in 2023 – an increase from 35% to 44%.
Companies that took a proactive approach to health and safety stood above companies pursuing compliance by 44% to 35%. As EHS professionals prioritize a human and holistic approach to health and safety, this year’s Sphera report provides 5 key take aways:
1. Elevate executive and management leadership.
Empower your managers and executive staff to embed safety as a core corporate value and align teams by proactively creating a safe and healthy work environment. These leaders can be your top resource for achieving your health and safety goals.
According to the findings of the report, leadership remains the top driver (62%) in achieving EHS excellence. Give your leaders the tools and data insights to make informed decisions and tackle challenges before they become safety issues.
2. Prioritize safety over conflicting internal demands.
Work with operational managers to help them develop strategies that position safety as non-negotiable amidst competing priorities. Health and safety efforts can sometimes compete with organizational demands and competing goals.
These conflicts can limit resources and provide financial and workload constraints and cultural resistance. EHS professionals need a strategic and holistic focus on health and safety to balance and address conflicts and achieve sustained safety performance advancements.
3. Encourage open feedback.
Every company should have a culture where employees feel empowered to share safety concerns without retaliation. In this regard, employees look to executive leadership to set the tone and priority.
While front-line workers are the greatest asset in identifying and preventing injuries, they will never say something when they see something if they think management doesn’t care or will penalize them.
According to the Sphera report, 85% of respondents enforce processes where every employee can report, fostering greater workplace safety accountability and engagement at all levels and emphasizing a more inclusive approach to identifying risks. Remote, contract and onsite employees should all be encouraged by senior leadership to speak up if they notice safety gaps.
4. Maximize data-driven decisions.
Leaders make the best decisions around safety and health when they have data and analytics. With the right information, they can identify risks, improve outcomes and boost efficiency.
This requires the pairing of leadership with technology. For most organizations, technology continues to lead the way with 42% of survey respondents using EHS software to digitize and automate health and safety processes and event tracking. And 20% of companies have added mobile and kiosk devices to their EHS software to improve accessibility and reporting in different working environments.
5. Include contractors and remote employees.
A company’s health and safety culture must include remote employees and contractors to ensure everyone has access to reporting, audits and inclusion in metrics. Companies must also be aware of the different risks remote employees face when working from home or in hybrid home/office environments. For example, working alone makes remote employees more prone to ergonomic injuries or mental health concerns.
Organizations with processes and tools for every employee to report foster greater workplace safety accountability and engagement at all levels, emphasizing a more inclusive approach to identifying risks.
If you’d like to learn more about employing leaders to embed health and safety in your company’s culture, stay tuned to read our full report coming soon: Sphera Health and Safety Pulse Survey Report 2025.
Contact us today if you want to learn more about how purpose-built software can drive EHS excellence and safety culture adoption. We are here to help.
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