Please note: the following content was developed for educational purposes only and covers a wide variety of general workplace safety concerns and considerations, some not relevant to workers’ compensation or commercial auto coverage.

Picture this scenario: A small business owner believes their workplace is safe. They've got the right equipment, safety protocols posted on walls, and they discuss safety in team meetings. Yet when they leave each day, 36% of their employees carry workplace stress home, affecting their sleep, relationships, and mental health.

Current workplace safety trends show that mental health and psychological wellbeing are now central to modern safety programs. The workplace safety conversation has fundamentally changed, and your small business clients might not realize they're operating with an outdated playbook.

As an insurance agent, understanding this shift can help you guide clients toward better risk management and potentially reduce their workers' compensation claims. Here's what Pie Insurance's 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety Report revealed after surveying over 1,000 small business workers about their real workplace experiences.

When Safety Follows Employees Home

Mental health has emerged as the number one workplace safety concern, with 32% of employees citing it as their primary worry. This surpasses traditional concerns like physical injury risks, environmental hazards, or equipment safety.

But the impact doesn't stop at the workplace. More than one-third of employees report that workplace stress affects their personal lives, causing reduced motivation, anxiety, depression, physical symptoms like headaches and fatigue, sleep difficulties, trouble focusing at home, and strain on personal relationships.

When Pie Insurance's 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety survey asked about the most surprising workplace injuries witnessed, one employee shared: "A 40-something-year-old co-worker developed shingles on her face near her eye due to the stress of workload." This isn't just a workplace problem anymore, it's affecting families and communities.

The Perception Gap That Could Be Costing Your Clients

Compared to Pie’s 2025 State of Small Business Report released earlier this year, Pie Insurance’s 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety Report revealed several significant perception gaps that could affect your clients' risk profiles:

The Confidence Disconnect: 91% of employers feel confident addressing mental health issues, but only 62% of employees share that confidence in their employers. That's a 29-point gap in perception between these two groups about workplace mental health support capabilities.

The Training Reality Check: While 63% of employers report providing structured safety training, only 29% of employees say they receive regular, structured training. Even more concerning, 28% of employees report never receiving formal workplace safety training at all. This represents a potential 34-point gap between what employers believe they're delivering and what employees report receiving.

The Implementation Gap: 52% of employers noted having mental health protocols, but only 30% of employees observed having these protocols. That's a potential 22-point implementation gap, suggesting that mental health safety efforts might be less visible to the people they're intended to help.

The Technology Disconnect: 44% of employers say their business uses AI applications, but only 20% of employees are aware their company uses AI. While 64% of employers believe AI will improve worker safety over the next five years, only 23% of employees share this optimism.

The Stories Behind the Silence

Pie Insurance's 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety Report uncovered that 17% of employees hesitate to report safety concerns, and their reasons reveal deeper workplace culture concerns that could affect your clients' claims experience.

The top reasons employees stay silent about safety concerns tell a story about workplace culture:

35% fear retaliation or negative consequences
33% don't want to seem difficult
31% think nothing would be done

Notice the pattern: these aren't training issues or employee awareness problems, they're culture and trust considerations.

The CDC emphasizes that changing workplace policies and practices may be the most effective way to address worker mental health, rather than relying solely on individual coping strategies.

This silence has real consequences. While 65% of employees say they would intervene if they saw an unsafe situation, only 27% report actually intervening. That 38-point gap between willingness and action could suggest situational barriers beyond individual courage.

The Real Cost of Workplace Injuries

Pie Insurance's 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety Report painted a picture of workplace injuries that goes beyond statistics. 18% of employees experienced a workplace injury within the past year, and this figure rises to 32% when looking at the past five years. Fifty-eight percent of all employees witnessed workplace injuries in the past year alone.

Among those who were injured, the lost time varies significantly:

33% lost between 1 and 5 business days
5% lost 6 to 10 days
9% lost more than 10 business days

While 53% of injured employees reported no lost business days, nearly half experienced lost time, underscoring the operational disruption injuries can cause.

The Knowledge Gap Challenge: Only 35% of employees know how to file a workers' compensation claim, and just 56% clearly understand the injury reporting process. This knowledge gap creates opportunities for agents to add value by helping clients develop clear, accessible injury reporting procedures and workers' comp education for their teams.

For the 15% of employees who have filed workers' compensation claims, experiences varied. Many reported positive outcomes, 36% received timely and effective care, and 31% felt their concerns were taken seriously. However, 22% faced delays or care issues and 24% found the process stressful or confusing.

How Agents Can Help: Consider providing your clients with simple workers' comp education materials for their employees, including step-by-step claim filing guides and clear contact information. You might also recommend that clients designate a point person for injury reporting and ensure all employees know who to contact and when. These simple steps could improve claim outcomes and reduce the stress employees experience during an already difficult time.

What Employees Actually Want: Simple Solutions

When Pie Insurance's 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety survey asked employees what would make them feel safer, their answers weren't complicated or expensive. They wanted three main things:

Time and Respect for Safety: 43% of employees reported feeling pressure to work through fatigue, illness, or unsafe conditions to meet deadlines. 18% indicated safety protocols are "too time-consuming" as a reason employees might not follow them.

Employees consistently mentioned time pressure as a safety concern. As one employee put it: "Allow more time in scheduling for proper safety procedures to take place." Another said: "Allow workers more breaks and slower pace work."

A Voice in Safety Decisions: When asked what changes they wanted most, 24% cited improved safety education and training, but 22% wanted more employee participation and feedback in safety decisions ranking nearly as high as training itself.

Employees want dialogue, not just top-down safety directives. As one employee shared: "A safe space to voice concerns." Another requested: "Ask for my opinion on some topics."

Flexible Mental Health Support: 73% of employees say some form of mental health support from their employer would make a meaningful difference. Their top requests were practical: flexible work hours or remote options and mental health day allowances.

As employees shared: "Be encouraged to take mental health days to prevent burnout. More mental health resources available," and "Allow for more time away from work to prevent burnout. Work life balance is important."

The Business Size Factor

Pie Insurance's 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety Report revealed an interesting pattern about business growth and safety communication. Smaller businesses (2-10 employees) tend to show lower hesitation rates for safety reporting, while larger small businesses (51-500 employees) appear to show higher reported fear, especially among commercial drivers.

This could suggest that as businesses grow, communication barriers might inadvertently increase, which is the opposite of what most owners would want.

Looking Ahead: The Five-Year Safety Outlook

When Pie Insurance's 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety survey asked employees to predict the biggest safety challenges over the next five years, the results paint a clear picture:

Mental health and burnout: 25% (rising to 29% among 18-35 age group)
Labor shortages: 14%
Aging workforce and physical limitations: 12% (21% among 56+ group)
AI and task automation: 9%
Climate-related risks: 6%

Understanding these trends can help your clients prepare for and potentially reduce future claims.

Action Steps for Your Small Business Clients

Based on employee feedback from the survey, here are four practical recommendations you can share:

Close the Mental Health Implementation Gap: If your client reports having mental health protocols, help them verify that employees actually see and understand them. Consider recommending flexible work arrangements and mental health days, top employee requests.

Build Safety Into Schedules: Help clients recognize that time pressure creates safety shortcuts. Encourage them to schedule safety as part of project timelines rather than treating it as an add-on to productivity.

Create Safe Reporting Systems: Establish anonymous reporting options and train managers to respond supportively to safety concerns. Share actions taken based on employee feedback.

Verify Training Effectiveness: Track training completion, not just offerings. Identify who's missed training and make it interactive and relevant to actual job situations.

Why This Matters for Insurance Agents

Understanding these employee perspectives can help you:

Identify potential risk factors during client assessments
Recommend proactive safety measures that could reduce claims
Help clients understand why traditional safety approaches might not be enough
Position yourself as a consultant who understands modern workplace challenges

Pie Insurance's 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety Report suggests that businesses addressing these gaps may see improved safety outcomes, better employee retention, and potentially fewer workers' compensation claims. For more detailed guidance on workers' compensation best practices and classification systems, the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) provides comprehensive resources for insurance professionals.

The Bottom Line: A New Definition of Workplace Safety

Pie Insurance's 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety Report makes one thing clear, workplace safety is no longer just about hard hats and accident logs. It's about mental health, communication, and trust. Employees see 45% of injuries as preventable, and many carry the stress of unsafe workplaces home with them.

For small businesses, the message is urgent: those who expand their view of safety beyond the physical may not only prevent claims and reduce costs, but also build healthier, more resilient teams. In a tight labor market, that edge matters.

Ready to help your clients build safer, more resilient workplaces? Visit our website to learn how our data-driven approach to workers' compensation can support your small business clients' safety goals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What's the biggest gap between employer and employee perceptions about workplace safety? A: The mental health support confidence gap appears significant, with 91% of employers feeling confident addressing mental health issues compared to only 62% of employees who share that confidence in their employers.

Q: What do employees want most for mental health support in the workplace? A: According to Pie Insurance's 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety Report, flexible work hours or remote options and mental health day allowances are the top requests from employees.

Q: Why don't employees report safety concerns when they have them? A: The survey found that 35% fear retaliation, 33% don't want to seem difficult, and 31% think nothing would be done about their concerns.

Q: How does workplace stress affect employees outside of work? A: 36% of employees report that workplace stress impacts their personal lives, causing issues like reduced motivation, anxiety, depression, sleep difficulties, and relationship strain.

Q: What percentage of workplace injuries do employees think could be prevented? A: Pie Insurance's Employee Voice survey found that 45% of workplace injuries witnessed by employees could have been prevented, according to employee estimates.

Note: All datapoints mentioned are fromPie Insurance's 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety Report unless otherwise stated.

Thanks for reading! This content is intended for educational purposes only and does not imply coverage under workers’ compensation or other insurance offered through Pie Insurance Services, Inc. Please consult an agent or attorney for any questions regarding applicability of insurance coverage in all circumstances.

What 1,000+ Employees Revealed About Small Business Workplace Safety