Rave Mobile Safety (Rave) recently released findings from a new survey of 530 respondents that examined employee perceptions of workplace safety. The survey revealed that “workplaces miss the mark in critical communication and planning, and could be unprepared to meet the future needs of employees,” according to a Rave press release.
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For example, while 87% of respondents stated that they were aware of their workplace’s fire drill policy, only 57% of respondents indicated their workplace had preparedness drills in place for events such as hazardous materials incidents, weather alerts, and active shooter incidents.
Additionally, according to the press release, as the workforce continues to evolve with a growing number of Millennials and Generation Z employees joining, the way workplace safety is communicated may also need to shift.
Fifty-three percent of surveyed Millennial respondents were either unaware of their workplace’s emergency plans, or said that their workplace did not have emergency plans in place. When compared to respondents age 45 and older, a big discrepancy is revealed: Only 34% of respondents in this age group responded the same way about their employers’ workplace safety plans.
Additionally, nearly half of the 45 and older age group said that they were “very likely” to report an issue in which their own or a co-worker’s safety was in question, but only 8% of Millennials said they were “very likely” to report an issue like this.
Most respondents agreed on their preferred mode of communication in the event of a workplace emergency: text message. However, only 37% of respondents said their workplace currently has a mass text message notification system in place.
