New Report Published Finds Personal Safety is a Major Concern for Employees and that Employers Are Underestimating The Personal Safety Fears of Nearly 7 Million Workers:
A study into the perceptions of personal safety at work, published by ‘Peoplesafe’ has found that 6.8 million workers worry about their personal safety each week, while the majority of employers underestimate this level of concern.
The study, which was conducted with 2,100 non-vulnerable and potentially vulnerable workers, found that one in five employees worry about their safety at least once a week and that negative experiences involving safety issues often contribute to both their decisions to leave their job and their willingness to take on a similar job in the future.
22% of employees surveyed cited safety concerns as a reason they chose to leave their job and over a quarter would not take on a public facing role due to personal safety concerns.
The research report found that employees who feel unsafe at work are less satisfied in all aspects of their role and are more likely to leave their current position compared to workers who have not experienced a negative event. Whilst action is being taken to support other motivating factors for leaving a role, less has been done to address personal safety concerns.
Additionally, the study found that many businesses want to do more to protect their employees, but many struggle to know how they can help.
The report explores the issue of workplace safety and presents solutions for how employers and Government can work together to address these challenges. The report recommends that in order to better protect employees, regulators must give clearer guidance and Government should work with all parties to set out a standard of protection that employees can easily understand and access.
The overall message is that employers are not currently doing enough and 51% of the people surveyed agree that employers have a duty of care towards them outside of working hours and nearly a third believe their employer could be doing more to protect them. Most employees surveyed also supported the introduction of solutions that alerted people or called for help when they were at risk.
The study found that:
- Nearly 7 million workers worry about their safety each week.
- 57% of employers underestimate the level of concern felt by their staff.
- 57% of employees are concerned about facing aggression from the public.
- 22% of lone workers and frontline staff said safety concerns were among the reasons they chose to leave their job.
- One in four people do not want to take a role that involves face-to-face contact with the public, with 62% citing safety concerns among the reasons for that.
Attached:
- Copy of the Peoplesafe Report ‘Overcoming The Employee Safety Gap’.
Peoplesafe
Peoplesafe (formerly Skyguard and Guardian24) is a UK-based technology business, focused on providing and monitoring GPS personal safety alarms and applications for more than 150,000 at-risk and lone workers across both the public and private sectors. In addition to serving the NHS and police forces, the company has partnerships with government bodies including DEFRA, HMRC and The Forestry Commission, local authorities and housing associations across the UK, Yorkshire Water, Taylor Wimpey and Engie.
Yours sincerely
Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer
22LTB302 New Report Published Finds Personal Safety is a Major Concern for Nearly 7 Million Workers
CWU Eastern No5 Branch 
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