A Shift in Safety Perceptions

As safety organizations strive for continuous improvement, taking the pulse of the trends in safety and devising strategies to address them is a worthwhile endeavor. 

In this light, last month, the National Safety Council, in collaboration with Wolters Kluwer, issued a report, The Safety Shift: EHS Readiness in 2026.

Excerpted below are some of the conclusions:

The most persistent challenges facing EHS professionals are practical and systemic rather than cultural or ideological. There is strong and consistent agreement on what works to prevent serious incidents (job safety and hazard analyses and safety leadership training) suggesting that the tools for effective safety are well known. But their consistent application is uneven.

Regulatory compliance adds another layer of strain, with the pace and complexity of regulatory change standing out as the single greatest concern, particularly in translating evolving requirements into everyday practice.

Taken together, the findings suggest core safety challenges may not be winning greater hearts and minds at the top, but sustaining reliable execution amid constrained resources, regulatory flux, and operational realities, especially for those closest to the day‑to‑day work.

The role of safety professionals is being redefined by psychosocial risk, work complexity, automation, and data‑driven decision‑making. It points to a future EHS role that is both more human‑focused and technically demanding than ever before.

There seems to be a redefinition of the profession, where foundational safety knowledge is expected to be learned on the job, while analytical and digital capabilities are becoming prerequisites.

Noteworthy is that organizations are already planning to use automation and AI as part of their succession strategy, with nearly half expecting technology to help offset retirements.

A tension exists between acknowledgment and prioritization in Total Worker Health. While EHS professionals overwhelmingly agree that mental health and psychosocial risks belong within workplace safety responsibilities, they are unevenly operationalized in practice.

EHS leaders appear to be navigating a crowded agenda where human‑centric risks are acknowledged yet often deferred. The key challenge ahead will be to bridge the gap between long‑term Total Worker Health demands and short‑term operational focus, ensuring psychosocial and mental health risks are addressed as the definition of workplace safety continues to broaden.

EHS no longer operates at the periphery of ESG, but at its operational core, supplying the data, insight, and execution that give ESG strategies credibility. A particularly notable finding is the near‑universal involvement of EHS professionals in ESG initiatives, with only a negligible minority reporting no engagement.

This may be a signal that ESG, for many, has moved from a specialized or corporate‑level concern to a day‑to‑day EHS responsibility. Rather than ESG being treated as a separate reporting exercise, EHS professionals are actively helping to lead ESG strategy itself.