16th Sep, 2020 Read time 3 minutes

The book and movement of One Percent Safer

This article has been provided by One Percent Safer.


2.78 million people died last year due to work accidents or work-related ill-health. No doubt that’s an unacceptable number, but it’s also hard to get our heads around, so let’s break it down. It’s 7,616 people dead every day. It’s 317 every hour. 10 seconds, and another person dead. Another person just like you. A husband, wife, partner, mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, friend, colleague. Yet organizations rarely discuss safety in this way – it’s usually only ever about Accident Frequencies and Lost Time Injury Rates. Real people suddenly fade out to become mere numbers. 

Why you need to be One Percent Safer every day

At this point, you have a couple of options. You can accept this, as unfortunate as it, that this is just what happens in the world of work and carry on doing things the way you always have. Or you can join us and imagine a world where all organizations commit to being ONE PERCENT SAFER every day. 

You can be a change-maker and game-changer in your organization and be part of the ONE PERCENT SAFER movement. It’s this simple: if we all do just one thing, just improve things by one percent, then that’s 28,000 people that get to go home without harm, instead of ending up dead – each year. 28,000 husbands, wives, partners, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, friends, and co-workers. 28,000 humans. Wouldn’t that be incredible to be part of a movement that helps save 28,000 lives?

To get us started, the ONE PERCENT SAFER book harnesses contributions from 142 of the world’s leading thinkers, creating a compendium of ideas that anyone, anywhere, can access and put in place to create a safer, healthier world of work. Brought together for the first time in this book by Professor Dr Andrew Sharman, who comments

 “It’s not about easy answers, but instead providing a wealth of meaningful suggestions, perspectives, and encouragement to provoke critical thinking and generate new ideas, encouraging you to see something you may have missed – beyond the rules and regulations, past the audits and checklists, more than just asking ‘Got any safety issues?

The book is just a starter, the movement is about much more than the book. It’s about you, your organization, your community taking up our ONE PERCENT SAFER challenge, and being that game-changer to make things ONE PERCENT SAFER. It’s about you sharing and telling us what you’re going to do, and then actually making it happen! Yes, we want to hear your ideas, but most importantly we want to see you putting them in action. What you do will inspire and motivate others and in the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” 

We can’t fix everything all at once. But we can do something right now. We want individuals and organizations alike to join the ONE PERCENT SAFER movement. We want you to do one thing. Just make your organization ONE PERCENT SAFER. 

Come and join us, become a global game-changer at www.onepercentsafer.com and let’s make the world a safer place, one day, one life, one percent at a time

Help to support the movement by following ONE PERCENT SAFER on LinkedIn and Twitter

#ONEPERCENTSAFER

Brands who we work with

Sign up to our newsletter
Keep up to date with all HSE news and thought leadership interviews