Health and safety workers driven by negative experience

Posted on Thursday 12 June 2025

NEW RESEARCH amongst health and safety professionals has found that one fifth chose to work in health and safety after a negative personal incident to either themselves, a colleague or someone they knew.

The study, conducted by RRC International, which investigated health and safety career motivations, found that nearly half (42%) of these respondents who had a negative personal experience witnessed incidents firsthand at a previous workplace. This included a member of staff being struck by a suspended load or someone falling from a height.

Further to this, over 21% of those that had experienced a negative personal incident chose to switch careers because of an injury to themselves, with one respondent saying that they experienced hearing loss due to the lack of ear protection provided. Other individuals experienced suffocation due to a gas leak, or sustained an injury and were left hospitalised for a week.

Richard Stockley, managing director at RRC International, comments: “Whilst it is heartening to see so many people change careers to ensure the health and safety of others, it is unfortunate that this was, in part, motivated by such negative, traumatic experiences. Indeed, many of these incidents could have been prevented.”

The survey also found that a third of health and safety professionals (32%) who had swapped roles, attributed it to a family member or friend having a negative health and safety experience. One respondent elaborated, stating that a family friend had fallen from scaffolding, resulting in multiple operations.

According to HSE, falls from a height are still the most common kind of fatal accidents for workers, accounting for over one third of all workplace fatalities.

Richard Stockley continues: “A lack of proper health and safety training can have serious consequences for not only individuals and their peers in the workplace, but also their friends and family. An accident at work affects the entire community.”

“This makes fostering a positive health and safety culture throughout an organisation critical with all workers contributing to a safe and healthy working environment regardless of their role. Best practice and safety precautions become second-nature, and a philosophy of learning, training and constant improvement is filtered throughout a business. This will stop individuals from being subjected to distressing events in the workplace, where people should be comfortable and safe.”