Tackling Today's Safety Challenges:
Understanding the Intersection of Safety and Business Success
ASSP is the community that protects people, property and the environment. Our goal is simple: Every person deserves to lead a safe, healthy and fulfilling life — and work should support that by ensuring they return home well each day. As workplace safety advocates, we believe safety, health and well-being are fundamental rights — not privileges. Through collaboration with members, regulators, like-minded organizations and businesses, we strive to turn this vision into reality.
To understand the challenges facing businesses, we bring together the ASSP Executive Safety Forum, a group of nearly 60 top safety leaders representing diverse industries, to exchange insights. Additionally, we conduct an annual corporate listening tour, engaging executives across sectors to gather perspectives on emerging challenges and trends.
The reason is clear: In 2023, a worker died every 99 minutes in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That same year, private industry reported 2.6 million workplace injuries and illnesses — an estimate many believe is underreported. These numbers reflect lives changed, businesses disrupted and communities impacted. More must be done to protect workers and improve overall worker well-being.
As workplace challenges evolve, EHS professionals play a more strategic role than ever before. Companies are relying on them to implement tools such as artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and automation, while also supporting efforts to retrain and reskill workers to use those digital tools effectively. They are at the intersection of business demands, workforce realities and operational risks — shaping safer, healthier and more productive workplaces.
By understanding the trends and challenges impacting the occupational safety and health (OSH) profession, we can ensure we are a trusted advisor to OSH professionals, as well as the workers and companies these individuals serve. Those efforts enable us to provide a strong professional community, support the ongoing development of future and current professionals, and deliver the greatest value to help OSH professionals better lead their organizations toward improved performance and business outcomes.