Section 2:
Usage of digital tools and incident reporting
Most incidents are reported directly to a manager, with feedback and information about incidents coming from the manager as well.
When asked, most workers in the UK and Ireland knew how to report incidents at their workplace. Interestingly, it was noted that Irish workers (68%) reported incidents to their immediate manager, while UK workers tended to use digital systems or email more frequently.
This trend carried over to how workers received information about incidents that occurred. Most workers typically received this information from their managers, but email was a common source for UK workers as well.
We also noted that while most workers in both the UK and Ireland prefer to report incidents verbally to a manager, UK workers did show a slightly greater preference for digital reporting via dedicated system or email. A majority of Irish workers opted for verbal reporting.
Could there be a reason behind this? Research in Ireland has shown that more than a quarter of small businesses rank their level of digitalisation as low, despite a willingness to learn to adopt digital systems.
Digital safety tools and training are valued — and clearly improve outcomes.
In our survey, 67% of workers in the UK and Ireland indicated that they would feel safer at work if their employer used more digital tools for workplace safety. Among the 48% who responded that they would prefer digital incident reporting in answer to our earlier question:
preferred computer-based reporting
preferred a mobile option
Interestingly, we found that 82% of respondents in the 18-34 year old age bracket strongly agreed or somewhat agreed that they would feel safer with digital tools. This was compared to 73% of 35-49 year olds and just 42% of 50-65 year olds.
Comparisons with North America
Incidentally, this was higher than results we received from our North American- focused survey, of which 41% would prefer digital reporting. Our results also showed that the UK and Ireland as a whole were slightly further ahead in digital adoption than the USA and Canada.
Enquiring after employers efforts to improve workplace safety, our results showed that 74% of respondents in the UK and Ireland were provided with competency training. Following this, 86% said that this involved e-learning or digital training modules.
This can be broken down to:
in the UK
in Ireland
Utilising AI – seen as promising, but confidence is cautious
AI has become more than a buzzword. Globally, it is changing the way many businesses are operating and drastically transforming workflows. AI adoption has even made its way into government strategy in the UK and Ireland.
The UK government announced its AI Opportunities Action Plan at the beginning of 2025, while Ireland’s National AI Strategy was updated in 2024. Both initiatives aim to raise awareness of the benefits of AI adoption for businesses.
With this in mind, our survey asked if respondents believed AI could improve their workplace safety. 1 in 5 workers in the UK and Ireland believed it could definitely improve workplace safety, but many more see potential depending on implementation. We also noted that Irish workers were not as optimistic about this as UK workers.
We also wanted to gain a better understanding of how the responses to our question on AI were distributed across age brackets.
We found the most positive responses among the 18-34 age group, with 28% saying that they definitely saw that use of AI could improve workplace safety. This dropped to 20% among the 35-49 age group and fell even further to just 8% among the 50-65 age category.
Summary of Section 2
- Among workers in the UK and Ireland, most incidents are reported directly to a manager.
- A majority of workers in the UK and Ireland say that they would feel safer at work if their employer used more digital tools for workplace safety.
- Digital tools are being used heavily in delivering competency training. Results indicate that Irish workplaces lag slightly behind UK counterparts in digital adoption.
- Workers are curious about AI but not convinced. Implementation will be key to adoption.
- There is also a definite gap between age groups on AI-related responses.