Organizations that achieve lasting results in workplace accident prevention, HSE, and QVCT rely on levers validated by research and field experience.
The Levers That Sustainably Reduce Workplace Accidents
1. Start from real work and actual working conditions
Observe, analyze, and discuss what teams actually do in their real working conditions.
This is the foundation of occupational risk prevention approaches and risk analysis recommended by INRS.
2. Structure on-the-ground discussion spaces and safety talks
Safety talks, sometimes called toolbox talks or integrated into a Safety Day, are not rule reminders.
They are moments to share real situations, deviations, and dilemmas encountered in the field.
These exchanges foster shared vigilance, a central lever of safety culture and Behaviour Based Safety approaches when they are designed in a non-punitive way.
3. Treat near misses and weak signals as useful data
High-performing systems do not aim to reduce reporting.
They aim to understand and analyze it, notably through tools such as the root cause analysis tree, in order to draw operational lessons.
This approach makes it possible to act before a workplace accident occurs.
4. Clarify managerial trade-offs regarding safety
What management concretely values has more impact than institutional messages.
Consistency between discourse, decisions, and operational constraints is a key factor identified in many studies on organizational culture, safety culture, and management training in HSE and QHSE contexts.
5. Work on safety culture rather than compliance alone
Research shows that sustained reductions in workplace accidents are associated with collective vigilance, the ability to speak up, and organizational trust.
These dimensions are closely linked to quality of life and working conditions, psychosocial risks, and mental health at work, particularly in high-pressure or stress-management contexts.
Reducing Workplace Accidents Is a Matter of Understanding
Workplace accidents are not primarily an individual issue.
They reflect a work system, its constraints, its organization, and the daily trade-offs made within it.
Modern prevention, as defined by reference bodies in 2026, relies less on adding rules or safety training devices than on an organization’s ability to see, understand, and discuss work as it is actually done.
The levers presented here are not ready-made solutions.
They are essential points of support for building effective prevention tailored to the specific realities of each organization.
Our Approach
As a consulting firm specializing in occupational risk prevention, we support organizations in their HSE, QHSE, QVCT, psychosocial risk, and workplace mental health challenges.
Our role is to help organizations connect rules, practices, management, and safety culture through concrete solutions such as HSE training, occupational health and safety training, Safety Days, and tailored support programs that integrate real work.
- Discover our support in risk prevention and safety culture
Key Takeaways
- Achieving a lasting reduction in workplace accidents requires shifting attention from formal rule compliance to real work.
- Effective levers are known, documented, and validated by research and field experience.
- Safety talks, near misses, and managerial trade-offs are central points of leverage.
- Prevention works when it is integrated into daily activity, not when it remains peripheral.
- Safety culture is built over time through trust and shared vigilance.
FAQ
Do these levers replace existing safety rules?
No. Rules remain essential. These levers make them operational by connecting them to real work situations, as recommended by INRS approaches.
Why is starting from real work so critical?
Because gaps between prescribed work and real work are inevitable. Understanding them makes it possible to anticipate risks rather than discover them after a workplace accident.
Are safety talks really effective?
Yes, when they are short, regular, and focused on concrete situations. They foster shared vigilance and fully integrate into a well-designed safety culture and Behaviour Based Safety approach.
Why place so much importance on near misses?
Because they are early signals of system fragility. Their analysis, notably through root cause analysis trees, makes it possible to act before a workplace accident occurs.
Is management’s role central in prevention?
Yes. Managerial decisions directly influence behaviors, psychosocial risk management, and quality of life and working conditions.
Can safety culture really be developed?
Yes, but not through injunctions. It is built through consistency, trust, recognition of real work, and appropriate HSE and QVCT training systems.
Sources :
INRS. 2023. Understanding workplace accidents and acting in prevention. National Institute for Research and Safety for the Prevention of Occupational Accidents and Diseases.
INRS. 2022. Real work, prevention, and safety culture. INRS technical and scientific reports.
CNAM. 2023. Statistics on workplace accidents and occupational diseases. Health Insurance, occupational risks.
Reason, J. 1997. Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents. Aldershot, Ashgate.
Reason, J. 2008. The Human Contribution: Unsafe Acts, Accidents and Heroic Recoveries. Farnham, Ashgate.
Hollnagel, E., Woods, D. D., and Leveson, N. 2006. Resilience Engineering: Concepts and Precepts. Aldershot, Ashgate.
Dejours, C. 2015. The Human Factor. Paris, Presses Universitaires de France.
Eurogip. 2021. Prevention of serious and fatal workplace accidents. Eurogip, European studies and reports.
FONCSI. 2018. Human and organizational factors in industrial safety. Foundation for an Industrial SafetyCulture.
Edmondson, A. 2019. The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Hoboken, Wiley.