2025 State of Safety

Page 3 of 3

Page 1: Survey results | Page 2: Advice for new safety pros | Page 3: Attracting new people

RESPONDENT COMMENTS

What can be done to attract new people to the profession?

Create avenues and/or programs for people coming out of high school to better understand and pursue the career through college/right out of high school. Oftentimes, the joke is that the majority of people working in the EHS area got into the role by “accident.” Be intentional about highlighting it a career path to high school students rather than relying on people to continually “accidently” fall into the profession.

I believe many young people perceive safety as “nerdy,” but I wish they could see the variety and rewards of the work we do. It’s amazing how many younger individuals get involved in safety because a family member is in the profession. I feel we can do more to educate people about this field, perhaps through high school career days. It would be fantastic if we could engage more professionals to participate in these events for high school students and college freshmen.

Emphasize the well-rounded nature of the job. We are no longer safety cops. We are professionals working to ensure everyone can go home safe, every day, whatever that takes.

Recruiting! Especially at the high school level and beyond. Many don't know or see a path in this and how applicable it is to other realms of employment, and the career path value it has.

More mentoring and internship opportunities.

More opportunities to start in the field. Using internships or mentorships might help the people get a foot in the door.

There should be more presence at job fairs and advertising in major cities. NSC and similar organizations could promote the profession on billboards or in digital ads. It needs to be in places where young people are looking.

More involvement with STEM, robotics and LEGO competitions. Local community colleges have combined degrees into a single general degree. More degree focus on IH and safety. Include a safety and health course in college business curriculums.

Competitive pay and opportunity for professional improvement.

Engage younger workers to take safety and health courses and show the job satisfaction that comes with helping others.

Have more educational, intern and mentoring programs.

Improve wages for safety professionals. It’s difficult to recruit qualified staff with limited financial resources.

Offer incentives, pay perks and more safety training to cover job requirements.

Offer a career development program so untrained people can apply and become safety specialists.

The variation of different industries and environments one can chose to work is a perk of the profession. If you want to work outside in health and safety, you can. Or, if you prefer an indoors manufacturing environment, you can do that too, etc. It really isn't a “sit in an office all day” profession, unless you make it that way.

Change the narrative about the safety position. It’s far too often recognized as an unwanted position, i.e. “safety snitch.”

The outside view and attitude toward safety professionals need to shift. It’s difficult to encourage anyone to join a profession that’s considered a “roadblock” to productivity and “safety cops.” To dig deeper into that, though, there are some safety professionals who do perform their jobs as a cops, which gives everyone else a “bad name.” The safety profession is in need of a major overhaul and rebranding. We, as safety professionals, cannot keep saying that safety integration into the workplace is a failure of management and employees lacking engagement and accountability – we need to look at ourselves.

We need to better define what a professional in safety is. Some think it’s OSHA 30 and they’re in! Others, professional certs; some, a degree; and then there are some that believe a safety professional is a combo or something else. Hard to promote a career in this environment.

Career engagement as a safety professional is truly a calling that demands profound passion and dedication. It’s a role that not everyone is suited for, but for those who embrace it, the opportunities to make a difference are limitless.

I think we need to better prepare safety and health professionals for what they will experience. There doesn’t seem to be a big focus on teaching soft skills to future safety leaders. If they join an organization that lacks safety perspective or solid safety leadership from the top, they’ll probably end up forcing standards and regulations using the proverbial “stick” rather than enticing and leading with the “carrot.”

Communication of the applicable importance and true end-goal: eliminating preventable incidents.

Tell high school kids/early college kids about the profession; many young people aren’t aware there is such a career path. Universities that have safety programs – like Indiana University of PA – have to be so much more vocal.

Increase pay! Money talks, everything else walks.

Help those interested understand the difference between safety and compliance and also how they tie together. Letting them know it is also a great balance between office/administrative work and time to walk around, view work practices, chat with employees. Safety has a multitude of job responsibilities that vary often.

Career engagement as a safety professional is truly a calling that demands profound passion and dedication. It’s a role that not everyone is suited for, but for those who embrace it, the opportunities to make a difference are limitless.

It seems to be allowing for more flexible work hours and locations, and flexible work assignments. This does not always fit within our traditional model.

Sell safety in everyday scenarios. I challenge my staff to give me one example that doesn’t involve safety.

Clear paths to leadership inside and out of EHS roles needs to exist. The growth path is small and few places have a growth path out of EHS departments if there isn't another level. EHS professionals need to present themselves, and in turn be seen, as value add to the business and an essential personnel to support healthy business growth. EHS professionals need to feel heard, but also understand the business needs and appetite for risk.

We need a better level of structure within our industry. The old method of hiring the person who got injured or, nowadays, someone who has taken a few safety classes at their local junior college isn’t enough. Also, there needs to be more clear designations between each stage of advancement in safety. A new person to the field can’t do the same work as a person who has been in the business for ages. School doesn’t equate to good safety leaders. Lastly, safety leaders need to have a bigger array of skills that isn’t necessarily safety-related, i.e. social and psychological skills.

We need to attract younger individuals to the profession and give them the opportunity to gain experience.

Help people interested in the profession understand that the field includes risk management knowledge, skills, and abilities not just safety knowledge. Schools and universities also should start training students about the business of safety, not just regulations and standards.

Value the commitment and positives safety professionals can bring to an organization through cost savings, employee satisfaction and a stable work environment.

People are always surprised with how many different areas safety can bring you and career options. We get to care for people and improve quality of life, and benefit our overall economy simply by what we do. Showcasing that is enticing.

Promote and HSE degree majors in colleges and universities; make scholarships available. Put the programs within Biology, Chemistry and Engineering schools in universities as an optional major or area of concentration for students. If you don’t advertise it, nobody knows it exists.

Provide a positive safety culture in your organization.

More accessible and affordable training and certifications. Focused case studies as examples and templates to allow new talent to take hold and grow.

I do not think there is a shortage of safety people. There is a shortage of qualified safety people that I’m sure want to do the right thing but do not have the knowledge to do so. I think safety should be advertised more often because of how big it is, and that might help people to get into safety and make it more discoverable.

There are only a few positions on each site. The majority of our applicants believe they can just sit back and relax; they fail to understand the meaning of predictable hazard awareness and learning. The burden is a challenge to entice employees to engage in learning a skill thoroughly enough to provide quality oversight and pay them enough to stay.

Communicate the benefits and positive interactions with people.

Construction is cyclical in nature, so it can be difficult to retain people for long periods of time when work is slow. Offer a clear career path with professional development plans and mentorship programs.

IMHO, safety is a calling. Either you want to do it to help others, or you don’t. So unless there’s a way to teach caring for others over raw capitalism where everyone steps on everyone else ...

Highlight the science behind health and safety (ergonomics, industrial hygiene, etc.) to make it more appealing.

Don’t abolish OSHA – expand it!!! Expand/promote NIOSH.

There should be more presence at job fairs and advertising in major cities. NSC and similar organizations could promote the profession on billboards or in digital ads. It needs to be in places where young people are looking.

Redirect resources to areas/operations of highest risk.

Refocusing senior leadership on mentoring and influencing and not just EHS ops management.

Recruiting and training from workers and trades.

Practical workshops.

Mentor new personnel with older staff to help learn what is necessary vs sending out on their own.

More undergraduate program offerings.

Develop program for retired teachers to get into the field, promote community colleges with safety certificates.

Reintroduction of job rep training.

Awareness campaign, lower barrier to entry especially for certifications like ASP, GSP, CSP etc.

Unfortunately, with the new administration, employee safety and OSHA will no longer be viewed as important. Corporate and CEO profits will be the driving factors and safety, and environmental protection will be going the way of the dodo.

Raise regional pay rates.

For government sector, wages equal to the private sector.

Executive level management needs to understand appreciate and support the importance of our contribution to their bottom line in reducing cost.

College recruiting, the importance of a safe job environment, and how safety is relevant in every career field.

Need safety professionals to care about what they do, and not just be there for the paycheck.

More awareness televised.

Unsure. Possibly better recognition of the need for such professionals by many organizations who perceive safety and health as a burden or too costly.

Standardization of education / training and certification of health and safety professionals.

More outreach and focus on the organization.

Better awareness at the high-school and secondary education level that health & safety is a career path.

1. The candidate must know that all layers of the company – upper management to production employees – understand and buy into the importance of workplace safety. 2. Supervisors must be instructed as to how to appropriately discipline an employee for not adhering to safety rules. Most supervisors were production employees and have had little or no training as to how to discipline an employee. Too, supervisors need to know that upper management will have their back as to this issue.

Establish professional development tracks/clear growth plans within an organization.

More support for Risk Assessment, Safety, and Loss Control competencies. Most people do not know what safety/risk professionals actually do or the skill sets that they need to have to become successful.

Office jobs ... most applicants want a job that is in a nice office without any fieldwork.

Encourage higher education for safety personnel.

Offer on-the-job training.

More universities on the West Coast that offer Environmental, Health & Safety degrees.

Appropriate pay scales. Emphasis on management participation and training. Teach in school.

Provide company-paid OSHA training and certifications. Increase the salary for safety professionals.

Clear path of engagement within companies.

Support from upper management.

Increase salaries and status.

Career advancement for younger professionals.

Job security and comparable compensation.

More promotion for the rewarding work of being a safety professional.

Offer attractive compensation packages.

Support from senior leadership and better pay. Accountability.

Safety organizations auditing leadership on local levels, as well as top executives, about racism and recrimination and doing something about it.

College-level participation. Utilize Industrial Technology and Engineering departments.

Increase in wages. Paid sick time. Better vacation.

Begin teaching our youth early.

More online courses.

Career path to entice line workers to join EHS.

Increase pay and benefits. Since most organizations have only one safety professional there is no real room for growth, so having an avenue to grow professionally.

We need to deploy EHS & Sustainability (EHSS) information among community. Besides, we need to integrate EHSS with Quality and Production management system.

Attractive salaries.

Awareness and training.

Higher pay.

High School career/job fair, or whatever similar they have now.

Money and benefits as well as career advancement.

Additional legal requirements for companies could create more demand for hiring of safety professionals.

Publicize career path at the high school level and college level.

Few high school graduates even know that a career in safety even exists.

Provide incentives (sign-on bonus, relocation package, education courses).

Strong mentor program and ability to recognize universal knowledge/skill designations.

Organizations like NSC or others could continue to get in front of the national news to share the win-win situation that safety will protect Americans and will reduce the medical burdens on our society. It’s not all about “get the job done and get out.” Some people rush and get hurt. More sharing of the safety factors could possibly work better for American industry.

Better integrate safety education at lower levels of education to promote awareness, personal safety and understanding of psychological factors of personal safety in everyday life. If young people learn of the value of thinking about their safety when they do the things, they will understand the importance of this practice and that will encourage more people to want to learn more, which leads to more choosing safety science as a secondary school major, which in turn puts more qualified applicants into the market.

Make contractors more accountable.

Better pay and educational benefits.

Outreach at universities, esp. to adjacent but non-EHS majors (i.e. environmental science, chemistry, physiology, etc.)

Help high schools and colleges highlight this profession to students. Hold job fairs at events for this profession.

The remuneration for safety professionals needs to be made attractive and competitive.

Training ... management getting involved with employees.

If safety is promoted at work and ALSO outside of work, then maybe people may start asking how to get involved.

Employers only hiring qualified professionals for safety roles.

Treat safety as a high priority and mean it. Leadership participation and actions are needed.

More local Chambers of Commerce could sponsor or host more S&H educational opportunities for company employees to learn more about S&H/IH.

A health and safety professional should not be the “all” to everything. What that means is the typical health and safety person is also the person that handles all aspect of hazardous materials monitoring, permitting, etc. The EH&S role has become a very burdensome assignment that does not allow the individual to complete all required tasks at their highest attention. Basically, every S&H professional is also the company’s EH&S professional. This has been a burden and should be reevaluated to create more safety professionals that can respond to and correct site situations.

Increase incentives.

With less people in and entering the manufacturing profession, the type of entry-level employee is much different than it was 10 - 15 years ago.

Better pay. Better respect for the position.

Shadow programs with students before internships.

Offer personality tests free to home in on students’ strengths because safety is a people business.

Offer a career development program so untrained people can apply and become safety specialists

We work in Municipal and Industrial Water and Wastewater treatment. I think it needs to be stressed more during annual local and national meetings such as WEF, AWWA, Rural Water Districts, etc. The industrial side seems to be more on top of safety just because our clients (oil refineries) are more diligent.

 

College outreach programs.

Education on the job tasks and responsibilities.

Raise the standards.

I think more involvement with career days at schools. Most students are unaware of safety as a career path.

Intern and mentorships.

Changing the organizations’ cultures to make safety a company core value. Demonstrate this transparently through facts about the company’s safety history. Provide safety professionals with clear steps for growth and progression through the company.

Based on employer demand and employment needs. Most need: manufacturing, construction, and service industries.

How broad this field is and what different types of roles could look like.

Provide them the benefits of safety in their daily life.

Publicize professional growth opportunities, earning potential, ability to transfer skills and move across industries easier than other professions.

It’s not getting new people. It is getting people who are willing to travel for the work. An amazing number of people don’t want to see the rest of the U.S., and only want a job conveniently located next to their home. Very rarely is the work going to come to you; you need to go to the work.

Stimulate their passion for ensuring their co-workers’ safety and health is a valuable thing, with the self-pride of going home at the end of the day with every employee going home the same way he came in.

Pay higher wages.

Sign-on bonus, designated career path, cross-training, advanced training, mentoring.

Make a clearer education path known to the general public, especially for high-school students. Easier access to education. Associate’s Degrees/Technical Diplomas for safety that can help lead to further education.

Teach generations that the profession exists and what is involved in this profession.

Cheaper and more qualification possibilities. Higher wages.

Stop others from allowing a position to be filled with just a safety girl or guy. What I mean by that, if a person is hurt, has an illness, or is mentally challenged they will put that person in a safety position. This shows that the position can be filled by anybody, and that is not the case.

Have more educational, intern and mentoring programs.

Having the right safety leadership that’s suitable for the safety culture you want to build, frequent site visits by executive team that engage with the workers and ask the right questions that shows their commitment to their safety and promote new and young workers to engage in safety as part of the onboarding process. Get them actively engaged in safety initiatives right from the start.

Treat S&H professionals with more respect.

Raise awareness of the profession at both the elementary and high school levels through outreach.

Pay=roles actual responsibilities

Higher pay, more recognition.

We don’t need to attract new people to the profession. Invest in existing people first.

We need to attract qualified practitioners and grow the profession from accredited safety programs at universities where entry level professionals are well rounded. Too many unqualified practitioners are entering the field through the certification mills, performing poorly and discrediting the profession.

I don’t know the answer - but when we did our interview in the past year for 2 positions a couple of things stuck out. Wanting to work remotely was the big topic; the experience was minimal but they wanted high pay.

Better outreach to share information about the profession and opportunities.

Having safety-related certifications that don’t require a degree or can be subsidized by work experience / hours in the health and safety industry can broaden our ability to attract new people.

Better visibility of career path and more opportunities for those who want to grow the skillset

I am not certain this is a good field to try to attract people to pursue. Much of the time, in my experience, the best-performing EHS people have been the ones who started in a different role and then found the EHS field through necessity and/or filling the needs of a company. Spending a portion of one’s career in a different field before being pressed into EHS can bring some significant advantages.

 

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