Section 1:
Workplace environment
Employees feel safe, but nearly half have experienced, or know someone who has experienced, a workplace accident or work-related illness.
We’ll start with the positives. Our 2025 results show that 82% of workers in the UK and Ireland feel safe in their workplace. 71% agree that employers are good at working with workplace environment issues as well as involving staff.
What is 'workplace environment'?
The term workplace environment can encompass many things. For the purposes of this survey, ‘workplace environment’ refers to everything that affects how we feel at work:
- Physically
- Mentally
- Socially
However, almost half of workers in the UK and Ireland had personally experienced, or had a relative who experienced, a workplace accident or work-related illness. Levels were slightly higher among the Irish workers.
Psychosocial risks are a major cause of harm — and reason to leave
When asked to rank their top 8 associations for the term, respondents in both the UK and Ireland respondents listed ‘My Colleagues’ and ‘Company Environment’ in 1st and 2nd place respectively. A difference was observed between the 2 countries when it came to 3rd place. ‘Workload’ took the 3rd spot in Ireland, with ‘Flexible Working Hours’ ranking 3rd among UK respondents.
As for the bottom workplace environment associations, these did not differ substantially between the UK and Ireland, but stress in the form of having too much to do is a slightly stronger association for Irish workers.
Of the workers in the UK and Ireland who said they or a relative had experienced a work-related accident or illness, 64% said that it was stress-related.
Does workplace environment play a part in choosing an employer? An overwhelming 82% of workers in the UK and Ireland agreed that it does. The same amount said that a poor environment could lead to changing employer.
Summary of Section 1
- While the majority of respondents in the UK and Ireland say that they feel safe in their workplace, almost half of workers have experienced, or know someone who has experienced, a work-related accident or illness. In this case, perception does not equal protection.
- This could suggest under-reporting of incidents, or tolerance of preventable risk
- Most respondents who reported experiencing a work-related incident or illness (or knowing someone who has) say it was stress-related.