Each June, organizations across the country take part in National Safety Month, a campaign led by the National Safety Council (NSC) to raise awareness and highlight the importance of preventing injury and illness in the workplace and beyond. It’s an opportunity to recognize the many layers that go into creating and maintaining safe work environments and more importantly, to reinforce the systems and behaviors that protect employees every day. So, what does safety look like at your company?
The best approach to safety is holistic and interconnected. It spans industries, work environments, and job roles from warehouse workers to office staff to employees in transit. It is a proactive, results-driven strategy that address the root causes of injury, discomfort, and stress not just the symptoms.
As we enter National Safety Month, consider the many ways that your company is addressing safety in the workplace and any opportunities for improvement. Read on to learn how the four week-long safety themes of National Safety Month influence safety every day:
The workplace is constantly evolving new tools, changing technologies, shifting employee roles, and facing newly emerging hazards. That’s why continuous improvement must be a foundational part of your safety program to succeed in a workplace. Safety is not a grab and go toolset. It must be shaped to fit your business, which is encountering new circumstances every day.
In effect, safety teams should conduct regular reviews of all safety and wellness programs in partnership with onsite providers, management, and organizational leadership. These reviews are more than check-ins; they are collaborative opportunities to assess whether current goals are being met, identify injury trends, workplace incidents, or near misses, and adjust solutions to fit real-time needs.
Using a combination of employee feedback, environmental data, and clinical outcomes, you can develop new goals and tailor recommendations that align with both worker needs and operational goals.
Taking each of these questions as a starting point can lead to significant improvement in workplace wellness and employee health. From post-offer employment testing, to onsite ergonomics and musculoskeletal injury prevention programs, and return-to-work support, having a system that addresses the entire employee lifecycle is essential.
For example, if there is a rise in reports of shoulder pain at a jobsite, providers shouldn’t only treat the individual workers experiencing discomfort. A more effective approach would be to also work with ergonomists and leadership to proactively address the root causes. This includes assessing job demands for high risk tasks, evaluating lifting techniques, and offering onsite coaching or equipment modifications to reduce any ergonomic risk factors they find. Safety is a dynamic process, not a static checklist. That mindset fosters accountability, flexibility, and improvement across all levels of an organization.
The most effective safety programs are those where employees feel seen, heard, and empowered to act. Many companies face difficulties in keeping employees active and engaged in workplace safety initiatives, whether through lack of communication or resistance to change. So how can you improve engagement in safety at your company?
A comprehensive safety program, developed with the expertise of ergonomists and safety specialists, can address the unseen gaps in your safety measures. Identify the appropriate safety solutions tailored to your workplace challenges.
Bringing all these pieces together into one place can be easily accomplished with an on-site health and safety expert. On-site providers aren’t distant advisors, they’re embedded members of the workplace community. In addition to monitoring the worksite for ergonomic risk factors, they offer proactive interventions such as stretching programs, injury prevention coaching, early discomfort assessments, and tailored education sessions. More importantly, they foster a culture of trust, where employees feel comfortable discussing pain, stress, or unsafe practices without fear of reprisal or being ignored (read more about how to build a strong safety culture).
This type of relationship-building is essential for early injury detection and prevention. When workers report discomfort early, you can intervene before it escalates into something more serious saving time, reducing healthcare costs, and avoiding lost workdays.
💡At Briotix Health, on-site Industrial Sports Medicine™ providers also track patterns in these discomfort reports to help identify potential hazards or process issues that might not be evident from injury reports and safety audits alone.
Not all workplace hazards happen on the shop floor. For employees who drive as part of their job, whether traveling between locations, delivering goods, or working in the field, roadway safety is a crucial but often overlooked component of occupational health.
In the modern work environment this can be addressed with a suite of remote monitoring and coaching solutions that help employees keep safety top of mind while on the road. These tools monitor behavior, provide real-time feedback, and offer actionable coaching designed to reinforce safe driving habits.
This data-driven approach ensures that roadway safety becomes proactive rather than reactive. In industries where mobile workforces are expanding such as utilities, construction, and home healthcare this approach ensures safety protocols travel with the employee, wherever the job takes them.
Safety doesn’t end with injury prevention. True safety includes physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Employee wellbeing is not a checkbox on a form it is a real and tangible factor that affects your workplace every day.
Workplace safety programs should integrate holistic employee wellness into the daily workflow. This includes:
Every initiative should consider the human behind the employee ID. Burnout, chronic stress, and musculoskeletal discomfort aren’t just health concerns they’re safety risks. Employee wellbeing should be approached with the same rigor and data-driven analysis we apply to injury prevention.
By supporting whole-person health, you can help employees not only stay safe, but perform at their best which in turn contributes to reduced injury rates, higher morale, and stronger team cohesion.
This National Safety Month, we encourage all organizations to examine their current safety practices and ask:
If you're not able to answer "yes" to all these questions, or if you're looking for a partner to help you fill any gaps, Briotix Health is here to help. Together, we can build a culture where safety and wellness aren't just values: they’re part of the everyday experience. Contact our injury prevention experts today!