Research finds 97% of employees say their physical safety at work is important to them
Research finds 97% of employees say their physical safety at work is important to them
AlertMedia, the world’s leading threat intelligence, emergency communication, and travel risk management provider, today released findings from its third annual State of Employee Safety Report, which details employees’ perceptions of safety in the workplace. The 2024 report validates a trend AlertMedia has been tracking since 2022—employees are calling for more training, better safety communication, and greater transparency around their employers’ efforts to maintain a safe workplace.
For the first time, the 2024 edition of the State of Employee Safety Report also contrasts managers’ and employees’ perceptions concerning workplace safety and how safety ranks alongside other organizational priorities, such as productivity, brand reputation, and the company’s bottom line. The research found that employees in management tend to hold more optimistic views of their employer’s safety efforts, with 48% of managers saying their employer is making more effort to keep employees safe vs. only 32% of non-managers who report feeling the same way.
The 2024 study also found that 86% of employees have experienced an emergency at work, and 87% are worried a future emergency will impact them directly. Yet, a third of employees (34%) say they feel unprepared to navigate work emergencies.
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“This research highlights that many employees don’t feel prepared to face a work emergency, which is why organizations must continue to invest in their ability to rapidly identify and respond to risks and ensure employees have adequate visibility into efforts to keep them informed and safe at all times.”
“Organizations are experiencing more emergencies now than ever before due to the growing volume, scale, and diversity of today’s threat landscape,” said Christopher Kenessey, CEO at AlertMedia. “This research highlights that many employees don’t feel prepared to face a work emergency, which is why organizations must continue to invest in their ability to rapidly identify and respond to risks and ensure employees have adequate visibility into efforts to keep them informed and safe at all times.”
Additional insights detailed in the report include:
- Emergencies at Work: 67% of employees believe that more emergencies are impacting the workplace than ever before. 60% of employees say they have personally experienced an emergency at work due to severe weather, while 1-in-4 state they have experienced workplace violence.
- Safety Priorities: Workplace safety ranked as a top driver of employee retention for the third consecutive year, trailing only compensation and benefits.
- Mental Health: 94% of employees say mental health support is a top priority, yet nearly half of respondents would grade their employers’ efforts to support mental health a “C” or worse.
- Employers’ Safety Efforts: Employees feel like safety efforts are stagnating, and perceptions of employers’ efforts to keep them safe declined YoY for the second consecutive year.
- What Employees Want: Most employees (76%) think their employer’s communication needs improvement, and they want to hear more about the available resources and emergencies that might impact them.
The report also includes actionable advice for employers to better demonstrate their commitment to employees’ safety and well-being, including best practices for emergency communication, safety training, and reporting workplace incidents.
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