Posted on: December 25, 2025

Year-End Review and EHS Resolutions

As the new year approaches, many of us set professional and personal goals, but workplace safety often gets overlooked. The truth is, safety goals are the foundation for achieving any other business objectives, from productivity to career advancement.

This year, consider adding safety-focused resolutions to your list. OSHA-aligned training courses can help you and your team identify hazards, follow safety protocols, and create a safer work environment.

In this blog, we’ll explore why safety should be a priority and share examples of EHS resolutions you can carry into the new year.

The Importance of Safety Training for 2025 Workplace Planning

It’s plain and simple: safety is good business.

A poor safety record is expensive. You may have the direct costs in mind, but there are a whole host of hidden costs as well. Safety accidents and incidents can result in:

Workers’ compensation claims
Medical expenses
Property damage/repairs
Increased administrative expenses (insurance, legal, etc.)
Lost productivity from delays or stoppages
Investigation and reporting costs
OSHA fines
Corrective action costs
Training employees to replace injured workers
Lost productivity from worker replacement
Delivery delays
Increased employee turnover due to morale problems
Reputation problems

The National Safety Council (NSC) estimates the total cost of work injuries in 2023 was $176.5 billion, and these numbers don’t account for property damage, decreased productivity, or other downstream costs.

Average Workers' Compensation Payouts

Still not convinced by the importance of setting workplace safety goals for the new year? Understanding typical workers’ compensation payouts can highlight the real costs of workplace injuries and why prevention through training matters.

To begin, the average workers’ comp payout across all injuries and illnesses was approximately $41,757 in 2020–2021, combining both medical and wage-related compensation.

Here are more important numbers to keep in mind:

The payout amounts can vary significantly depending on injury type:
- Amputations average around $126,000
- Fractures, crushes, and dislocations average about $63,000
- Burns average roughly $52,000
- Less severe injuries like sprains/strains average around $34,000
The cause of injury also plays a role:
- Motor vehicle accidents lead to average payouts of nearly $89,000
- Slips or falls result in about $49,000
- Burns: around $53,000
- Being struck by equipment/object: about $40,000

These figures prove how quickly the total cost of workplace incidents can add up. Effective compliance training is an investment in preventing high-cost injuries and protecting both your people and your bottom line.

How to Conduct a Year-End Workplace Safety Review

Before we can set actionable workplace safety goals for the new year, we need to know where our record stands and how to conduct a year-end workplace safety review. This means that year-end safety reviews are unavoidable components of EHS resolutions.

The first thing you'll want to do is review all available records of safety accidents and incidents, like the OSHA 300 log, accident/incident reports, near-miss reports, worker safety concerns, and other paperwork.

Look for patterns – are there certain jobs or processes that experience a higher rate of incidents? Are there certain teams or shifts that have a poorer safety record?

If you find that you’re lacking in some of these written records, your goal for the new year should be to take steps to put these measures in place.

Next, try to find what the current paperwork missed. Talk to department heads and managers. Ask what processes or equipment have changed over the past year and whether hazard assessments have been performed for the new world order. If not, that’s a great goal for the new year.

Throughout the process, don’t be afraid to dig deeper than what you see on the surface. Perform a root cause analysis on incidents to locate the real problem.

New Year’s Resolutions for EHS Compliance

Once you’ve conducted your year-end review, some specific safety resolutions should stand out.

Make all New Year safety goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Choose things that will make a concrete difference in your company or team’s safety record and set a specific timeline to achieve them.

Whatever goals you choose, create processes for tracking your progress and evaluating your success afterward. Don’t be afraid to adjust your goals as needed, and don’t forget to celebrate your achievements!

If you’re in a position to set safety resolutions for the whole organization, that’s great. However, even managers and workers can set goals to improve their safety record. In fact, one of your organizational goals can be asking individuals to set their own.

Your EHS resolutions will be unique and tailored to your business and safety record, but here are a few examples of potential safety resolutions at each level to get you started.

1. Organization-Wide EHS Resolutions

Conducting a Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) or Activity Hazard Analysis (AHA) for processes with accidents or recorded near misses in the previous year before the end of Q2.
Hiring a dedicated safety officer.
Increasing the number of worker-reported safety concerns by 30% for the year.
Reducing recordable injury rates by 30% by the end of Q3.
Adding a new safety approach to your arsenal, like behavior-based safety.

2. Manager-Level Safety Resolutions

Checking that your team’s safety training is entirely up-to-date.
Adding timely and relevant toolbox talks to your weekly routine by the end of the first quarter.
Doing a daily walk-through to observe safety behavior and correct problems.
Publicly recognize and reward safe behavior.
Increase compliance with personal protective equipment (PPE) use to 100%.
Investigate all near-miss incidents and take corrective measures.

3. Employee-Level Safety Resolutions

Inspecting your tools and equipment to verify they are in good working order before every use.
Completing the annual fit test of your PPE.
Notifying your supervisor immediately if you notice an unsafe condition or action.
Finishing your safety training before it’s due.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

When setting your EHS resolutions, it’s easy to fall into two common traps: vague goal-setting and lack of follow-through.

Let’s take a look at each:

Vague goal-setting: Goals like “improve safety” sound good, but don’t provide a clear path forward. Instead, make your resolutions specific and measurable. For example, commit to completing the OSHA 10-Hour or OSHA 30-Hour training by a certain date.
Lack of follow-through: Even the best safety plans fail without consistent effort. Schedule regular check-ins to track progress, adjust strategies, and keep safety top of mind throughout the year.

Avoiding these pitfalls will help turn your EHS resolutions into lasting workplace improvements rather than short-lived intentions.

Get Started With OSHA.com

Regular safety training is a necessary component in reaching your New Year safety goals. Not only is training a compliance item in its own right, but it’s also a crucial way to keep workplace safety principles at the forefront of workers’ minds.

Online OSHA 10 or 30 courses can be a great foundation for workplace safety training, as well as an excellent refresher. And these days, you don’t have to cram all your workers into a classroom for two or three days, sacrificing productive time.

Online OSHA Outreach courses are just as valid when you use a reputable OSHA-authorized provider like us. We’ve been issuing DOL cards for over 20 years with self-paced, mobile-friendly courses that workers can tackle whenever and wherever it’s most convenient to them.

For construction and demolition workers, we offer a 10-hour Construction and a 30-hour supervisor-level course. For all other OSHA-regulated industries, including manufacturing, warehousing, and healthcare, we offer 10-hour General Industry courses and 30-hour supervisor-level versions.

Get started today!