A new industry report published by Step Change in Safety, in partnership with Empirisys, is helping organisations better understand what workforce observations are telling us about safety performance across the UKCS energy industry.
Drawing on 32,850 workforce observations submitted through Step Change in Safety’s E-Obs platform, the 2025 E-Obs Boost Industry Report identifies recurring themes, emerging risks and opportunities for improvement, while also highlighting positive progress in workforce engagement, observation quality and Major Accident Hazard (MAH) awareness.
Building on the first E-Obs Boost Industry Report, which analysed 2024 data, this latest edition provides a more comprehensive view of industry performance. New for 2025, the report includes year-on-year comparisons, refreshed Hazard and Life-Saving Rules categorisation insights, deeper analysis of emerging themes, and additional content exploring Process Safety Fundamentals, barrier health and leadership engagement.
The report shows that people across industry continue to speak up, intervene and share what they are seeing from frontline operations. Compared with 2024, recorded safety observations increased by 16%, jobs stopped on safety grounds increased by 31%, and workforce feedback interactions increased by 46%.
Craig Wiggins, CEO of Step Change in Safety, said: "The volume and quality of workforce observations highlighted in this report are encouraging. It shows that people continue to engage, intervene and share what they are seeing.
What matters now is how industry responds. Many of the themes identified in the report relate to the fundamentals of safe operations - barrier health, equipment condition, operational discipline and the consistent application of controls. These are areas where early action can make a real difference."
Bringing these observations together provides a powerful picture of what is happening across the industry – where progress is being made, where challenges remain, and where attention may be needed most. The report also highlights shifts in reporting patterns, workforce engagement and observation quality, helping organisations better understand how safety performance is evolving over time.
Among the recurring themes identified within the report are barrier health, equipment integrity, corrosion management, hazard identification, operational discipline and Major Accident Hazard awareness. While individual observations may appear routine in isolation, analysing them collectively can help identify patterns, highlight areas of concern and support earlier intervention.
The report suggests that the challenge for industry is no longer simply encouraging people to report concerns. Workforce observations are already providing valuable insight every day. The opportunity lies in understanding what those observations are telling us and using that learning to inform decisions, priorities and improvement plans.
Gus Carroll and Craig Wiggins
This is where Boost's AI-supported analysis capability adds value. Using E-Obs data, it helps identify recurring themes and emerging trends across large volumes of information, demonstrating how organisations can move beyond collecting observations and make greater use of the insight already being reported by the workforce.
Gus Carroll, CEO and Co-Founder of Empirisys, said: “When thousands of workforce observations are analysed together, patterns emerge that would be difficult to see from individual reports alone.
“This is not about replacing professional judgement. It is about giving leaders a clearer view of the issues their people are already raising, so they can focus attention where it is needed most.”
To support organisations in understanding and applying the findings, Step Change in Safety and Empirisys will host two webinars on 2 July 2026 exploring the key themes emerging from the report and discussing how organisations can use workforce observations to strengthen HSE and Process Safety Improvement Plans.
Webinar 1: Thursday 2 July | 1000–1100 BST
Webinar 2: Thursday 2 July | 1500–1600 BST
The webinars are designed for senior leaders, HSE professionals, operational leads, site managers, safety representatives and process safety professionals.
To register for one of the webinars, visit https://www.stepchangeinsafety.com/events/
The 2025 E-Obs Boost Industry Report is available for download from the Step Change in Safety website: https://www.stepchangeinsafety.com/resources/eobs-boost-industry-report-2025/