On March 25, the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) announced the release of its 2025 report of corporate safety insights.
The report contains views and experiences of business leaders from all industries. It offers environment, health, and safety (EHS) professionals key observations in making strategic decisions that drive improvements at their companies.
In feedback gleaned from the ASSP’s “corporate listening tour,” the following three themes shaping today’s workplace safety emerged:
- Workforce challenges, the shifting labor market—revealed through workforce instability and retention, the development of company leaders, and mental health and psychological safety.
- Aligning safety with business strategy, as seen in leadership commitment and decision-making, risk management and connecting safety to the bottom line, and going beyond legal compliance.
- Safety leadership and culture—moving from compliance to influence, using safety as a competitive advantage, and strengthening employee engagement.
“The report proposes a set of questions to help spark discussions among safety teams and with their colleagues and corporate leaders,” ASSP President Pam Walaski said in a statement. “It’s through proactive conversations about trends and potential risks that we can better integrate program improvements to reduce worker injuries, illnesses and fatalities.”
The ASSP was founded in 1911 as the United Association of Casualty Inspectors following the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in which 123 women and girls perished. The group was renamed the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) in 1914 before taking its current name in 2018.
OSHA recognizes Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week
On March 25, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) acknowledged the kickoff of its Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week (March 24–28) at the first university-owned feed mill in Iowa.
Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week is an annual training and educational event to remind agriculture industry employers and workers about the potentially deadly hazards of confined spaces, which include grain engulfment. The opening event at the Iowa State University in Ames focused on worksite housekeeping, hearing conservation, preventing struck-by incidents, and railway safety.
The event is a joint effort of OSHA’s Alliance Program, the Grain Elevator and Processing Society, the Grain Handling Safety Council, and the National Grain and Feed Association.
OSHA’s Alliance Program, in collaboration with state workplace safety officials and industry leaders, helped reduce fatal grain entrapments by 25.7 percent from 2022 to 2023. However, despite the collaborative efforts, half of reported grain entanglements in 2024 were fatal, according to the agency.
“Every worker should be able to go home safe at the end of the day,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Amanda Wood Laihow said in an agency statement. “By working together with our alliance and industry partners, we’re making grain handling safer and raising awareness to protect the people who produce our nation’s vital food supply.”
Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week events and resources include open discussions and daily interactive webinars with experts on OSHA regulations and topics that include worker fatigue, emergency safety planning, worksite housekeeping, railway safety, and alternative grain storage. Information about Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week webinars and local live events is available online.