The American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) has released its annual Corporate Listening Tour report on the 115th anniversary of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, one of the largest industrial disasters in U.S. history. Each year, ASSP gathers valuable feedback and context from seasoned safety professionals during its Corporate Listening Tour. This initiative, led by ASSP CEO Jennifer McNelly, CAE, facilitates candid conversations with safety executives around the world to capture their key insights and feedback and to identify trends impacting the safety profession.
ASSP compiles key takeaways from these discussions into its Corporate Listening Tour report to identify crucial safety challenges and emerging needs and opportunities for innovation that can help companies better align their safety strategies with industry demands to improve overall workplace safety.
The 2026 report represents a pivotal shift â moving beyond the âwhatâ and âwhyâ of workplace safety to the âhow.â Five critical themes in workplace environmental health and safety (EHS) emerged from this yearâs report:
- Workforce stability in safety and health: Addressing chronic skill gaps and rapid onboarding pressures as primary drivers of safety risk.
- Safety and health is a value, not a metric: Integrating safety into the very fabric of operational excellence and business strategy.
- Technology augments humanity: Embracing artificial intelligence (AI), automation and implementation of technology through a lens of ethics, transparency and trust-based adoption.
- Health is infrastructure: Treating overall worker well-being, including mental health and psychological safety, as foundational to a productive workplace.
- Leadership is relational: Empowering hybrid professionals who lead through influence and trust rather than authority alone.
âFrom what weâre hearing across the safety industry, itâs clear the time for passive observation has passed,â says Jennifer McNelly, CAE, CEO at ASSP. âThe Corporate Listening Tour affirmed that as workplace complexity accelerates, safety can no longer operate as a standalone function. Weâre at an exciting crossroads where safety is becoming a core business operating system rather than a functional checkbox, and weâre moving beyond understanding challenges to operationalizing solutions.â
âOn this somber anniversary, we remember the lives lost in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire,â adds Linda Tapp, ALCM, CPTD, CSP, president, ASSP. It offers a time for my peers and me to reflect on the past and look to the future â one where the workforce, technology, leadership and well-being are interconnected drivers of exceptional environmental health and safety performance. Thatâs why ASSP is meeting our members where they are to help neutralize serious injuries and fatalities and make workplaces safer for all.â