Public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, remain the top security concern of employees in the U.S., according to the 2022 State of Employee Safety Report from AlertMedia, which details employees’ current perceptions of safety in the workplace.

The study found that 90% of U.S. workers believe their organization has a duty of care to protect employees from unnecessary risk of harm when working or traveling on their behalf. Furthermore, 82% of employees stated employers’ obligation to keep employees safe extends to those working remotely.

Workplace security concerns and safety practices

The report asked respondents to rank their level of concern when it comes to ten common workplace safety threats. The threats were ranked by how many employees classified themselves as "extremely or somewhat concerned."

1. Public health emergencies (79%)
2. Cyberattacks (65%)
3. Severe weather (65%)
4. Crime (62%)
5. Significant outages (59%)
6. Transportation disruptions (55%)
7. Natural disasters (54%)
8. Workplace violence (53%)
9. Structure fires (48%)
10. Protests and demonstrations (46%)

The report also asked respondents which workplace safety issues they had encountered at work. Severe weather ranked first (46%), followed by significant outages (40%) and public health emergencies (33%).

While 82% of working Americans report that their employer offers safety training, only 56% report participating in training more than once per year. What’s more, employees who are not offered safety training are more than twice as likely to say they would not know what to do in the event of an emergency at work.

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