In Conclusion

As we have seen from this report, North American workers increasingly link workplace safety to productivity and operational performance, while employers are making measurable progress in safety foundations such as risk assessment, training, and incident reporting education.

Yet safety confidence has edged down since 2025, stress-related illness is rising in the USA, and workers continue to call for more dedicated safety expertise. This underlines the continued need for employers to respond to these needs and to avoid treating safety investment as a problem already solved.

This is perhaps most stark when considering the lone worker data. A high accident rate, declining employer confidence, and risk levels that sit above every other region surveyed point to a clear need for targeted interventions. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work here.

Chemical safety tells a similar story. Exposure is rising faster than risk is being removed at source, and the gap between improving digital access and actually removing hazardous chemicals at source needs to close.

There are significant gains to be made in taking advantage of workers' genuine appetite for digital tools that improve safety outcomes. North American workers are among the most open to AI and digital technology globally, but they are not asking for expertise to be replaced. They want technology that scales the work of dedicated safety professionals.

When introducing new tools or modes of working, this report makes one thing clear: organizations need buy-in from workers. Getting implementation right is what turns investment into impact.