Employees Think Employers Don't Care About Their Safety. Fix That Now

Employees being safe while at work is something that employees, managers, and employers all agree on right?

Well. It depends on who you ask.

According to a recent survey, when it comes to employee safety during work, there’s a disparity between what employees believe about their safety, and what managers, and employers believe about employee safety. 

And this disparity impacts employee trust in their employer, and harms employee retention rates. Resulting in higher employer costs, lower productivity, and damage to an organization’s reputation.

In this piece, I’ll look at employee perceptions surrounding workplace safety. Understanding how employees view their safety in the workplace can be an eye opener for employers and managers. And it should serve as incentive for more employee involvement in establishing, and implementing workplace violence prevention plans, including providing the types of workplace violence prevention training that your employees actually need and want.

Some Stats

These stats come from Alert Media’s The State of Employee Safety in 2024 survey of 2000 employees. Here’s a look at what they found:

•  79% of employees place “extreme importance” on their physical safety at work.
•  For female employees that number rises to 86%.
•  Yet, only 61% of employees surveyed believe their safety is a priority for their employers.
•  Workplace violence has affected nearly 1 in 4 employees (22%). 
•  27% of employees have been affected by crime at work.
•  37% of those surveyed expressed concerns about being impacted by workplace violence.
•  34% of those surveyed expressed concerns about being impacted by crime at work.

As an aside, I don’t know why this survey separates community crime that affects employees at work from workplace violence. California specifically includes violence from community crime as one of the four source types of workplace violence. Community crime directly factors into workplace violence and needs to be part of your workplace violence prevention approach.

In the same survey, 48% of managers believe that their employers made more of an effort to increase employee safety than the employer did the prior year. BUT, only 32% of non-manager employees agreed with that assessment.

And 67% of managers surveyed said that they are limited in keeping their employees safe. Including over one quarter of managers, 26%, who believe that they don’t have the support from their employers needed to keeping their employees safe.

What This Means for Employers

 What does it mean to employers when employees feel their safety is less of a concern to employers than their bottom line. It impacts the bottom line. Significantly.

71% of employees who believe their employers don’t care about their safety enough reported losing trust in their employers. 67% reported a decreased desire to remain with an organization that doesn’t prioritize employee safety.

And that easily leads to higher turnover and absenteeism and the costs associated with those, and lower productivity at work, which corresponds to a decrease in the bottom line.

The survey summarized the importance of this by noting, “when employers are not committed to ensuring a safe workplace the implications go beyond employees’ physical well-being. Psychological safety is a complex but necessary consideration, and it requires a fundamental understanding of what employees need and want.”

In its surveys dating back to 2022, Alert Media found that, “employees have been calling for more training, safety communications, and more transparency around employers’ efforts to maintain a safe workplace.” 

What You Can Do to Improve Your Employees’ Sense of Safety From Workplace Violence

 Here’s what to do to address the employee safety perception disparity.

•  Ensure that your employees are actively involved in all phases of the establishment, implementation, and maintenance of your workplace violence prevention program.
•  Make sure that employees are fully aware of the steps you take to remediate workplace violence safety hazards.
•  Makes sure that you have an effective workplace violence complaint and investigation process, and that your employees understand how to engage in that process.
•  Create and enforce a policy prohibiting retaliation for bringing forward concerns about workplace violence.
•  Require accountability for those who are involved in your workplace violence incident response processes.
•  Develop an incident response team, and make certain that they are trained in all aspects of their responsibilities.
•  Obtain employee input into the types of training they believe will help them remain safe from physical harm from workplace violence incidents.
•  Regularly provide training to employees in all aspects of your workplace violence prevention plan, and especially in strategies to avoid physical harm from workplace violence.
•  Ensure that your employees have the opportunity to review and provide input regarding your workplace violence prevention system.

I’ve put together an incredible resource to help you create and implement your workplace violence prevention plan. It’s my CA Employers Workplace Violence Prevention Tool Kit  It’s a guidebook, workbook, and video series, that takes you step-by-step through creating an effective workplace violence prevention plan as required under California’s new workplace violence prevention plan.

Would you like some help implementing your plan and with training your employees in recognizing, and avoiding workplace violence safety hazards, as well as in strategies to avoid physical harm from workplace violence? Send me an email at [email protected] and we can set up some time to chat about your workplace violence prevention needs.