Despite long-term improvements, work-related deaths in Great Britain remain stubbornly high. The latest statistics show 124 workers lost their lives in 2024/25, down from 138 the previous year1. Construction and agriculture, forestry and fishing continue to account for the greatest number of workers killed each year, between them making up just under half of all fatal injuries. While the reduction in the total number of deaths is welcome, each fatality represents a profound and preventable loss.

For health and safety practitioners, this presents a familiar challenge. Most organisations have robust rules, PPE and procedures. Yet serious incidents still occur when pressure rises, time is short and people feel they must prioritise output over safety. The issue is rarely a lack of knowledge. It is how people think and behave in the moment.

Behaviour, the brain, and everyday decisions

Understanding how the brain manages risk offers leaders a way forward. Day-to-day decisions are usually made in ‘System 1’ mode: fast, automatic and driven by habit and emotion. ‘System 2’ thinking is slower and more reflective but only engages when people consciously pause to assess a situation. Under fatigue, time pressure or social pressure, workers often default to System 1. They draw on routines, assumptions and what they see others doing. That can lead them to bypass procedures they know are important.

Immersive, scenario-based training is one way to address this gap. By placing people in realistic, emotionally-charged situations, it encourages them to notice their instinctive reactions and practise a switch into more deliberate responses before something goes wrong. Other neuroscientific principles such as emotional encoding, social learning and mirror neuron effects also play a part. People remember what they feel, copy what they see being modelled, and engage more deeply with stories and characters that reflect their world.

Making safety everyone’s job

A strong safety culture involves people doing the safe thing when nobody is watching. It depends on an environment where everyone feels responsible for, and supported in, safe choices. Psychological safety is critical. If people fear blame or career damage for speaking up, concerns stay unspoken until an incident exposes them.

Immersive programmes, such as the neuroscience-based safety leadership training at SSE’s Faskally Safety Leadership Centre, developed with Active Training Team, are designed with this in mind. Mixed groups of employees and contractors experience a storyline in which everyday decisions build towards a serious incident. They then unpick where different conversations, priorities or interventions could have changed the result and rehearse the language of challenge and response.

Since it launched in 2024, nearly 10,000 employees and 2,000 contractors have taken part, with confidence to challenge unsafe behaviour rising from 43% to 68%. The concept that “everyone is a safety leader” now anchors SSE’s wider ‘Safety Family’ culture. The emphasis is not just on understanding rules, but on practising behaviours that support a shared sense of ownership.

Practical takeaways for health and safety leaders

· Treat safety as a shared leadership behaviour, not just a specialist function, so anyone can and should intervene.

· Design training that people feel, not just hear, using emotionally-engaging scenarios that turn messages into habits.

· Build psychological safety deliberately, using simple, practised techniques to allow employees to challenge and be challenged without blame.

· Measure safety performance beyond injury stats. Track confidence to speak up, near-miss reporting and quality of interventions.

Creating a strong safety culture is less about new rules and more about how people think and act in everyday situations. By combining immersive, behaviourally-informed training with a culture that expects everyone to be a safety leader, organisations can move closer to making getting everyone home safe a daily reality.