If Your Employees Don’t Feel Safe Coming to Work, Are You Responsible?

Your employees don't feel safe coming to work. Not because the job is difficult or the workload overwhelming. They're worried about walking through the parking lot after a late shift, opening the store alone in the morning, or being the last person on-site after everyone else has gone home. Are you responsible?

It's an uncomfortable question, but one every employer should ask.

Workplace violence is no longer an isolated problem. According to data shared in a recent webinar by LVT Product Marketing Manager Tim Male, workplace violence increased 62% in 2025 alone. In 2024, 470 employees lost their lives to workplace violence, while more than 50,000 workers suffered assault-related injuries. Those incidents also carry a significant business cost, with victims missing an average of six workdays, reducing productivity and affecting morale across entire organizations.

These numbers are more than statistics. They’re ordinary people just like you who showed up for work expecting just another day, never imagining it would end in a trip to the emergency room. Or never thinking it would be the last time they left their house.

"Duty of care is not only a business responsibility, but it's truly a moral responsibility," said Male. It's a perspective that goes beyond OSHA regulations or liability concerns. And it asks a much bigger question:

What responsibility do employers have to make sure every employee gets home safely at the end of the day?

Duty of Care Starts Long Before an Emergency

“Duty of care” is the legal obligation a company has to prevent harm and protect others from damage, injury, or even fatality as related to employment with that company. Most organizations understand this. They conduct safety training. They install emergency exits. They comply with federal and local regulations.

But there’s an important distinction between legal compliance and genuine protection. A business can satisfy every requirement on paper while employees still feel vulnerable walking to their cars after dark.

When employees don't feel safe, everyone loses. Productivity drops because the employee’s prefrontal cortex shifts into survival mode, draining focus which in turn leads to increased errors, absenteeism, disengagement, and higher turnover.

Employees who stay stop reporting concerning behavior because they've become desensitized to it. As Male explains, “Employees may begin asking themselves, ‘If this organization doesn't care about me or I don't feel safe, why should I care about it?’”

The issue is no longer security—it’s trust.

The Four Pillars of a Strong Duty of Care Program

For years, workplace security has been largely reactive. A camera records an incident, someone reviews the footage, a report gets written, law enforcement does or doesn’t get involved. But none of these things prevent the incident from happening in the first place.

Male describes this as the tension between reacting to events and preventing them altogether. Organizations spend enormous effort investigating what happened after an incident, when the real goal should be making sure it never happens at all.

According to Male, organizations that successfully protect their employees tend to build their safety programs around four core ideas rather than relying on a single solution.

#1 Creating a Visible Security Presence

People naturally feel safer when security is obvious. Highly visible mobile surveillance units equipped with lights, speakers, and cameras send two messages at once. Employees see them and think, "Someone has my back." Bad actors see them and think, "This place isn’t worth the risk of getting caught."

#2 Autonomous Intervention

Too often, traditional security expects frontline workers to confront aggressive customers, ask suspicious people to leave, or investigate unusual behavior themselves. Intelligent security systems engage first. AI-powered talk down technology can identify trespassing, loitering, or after-hours activity and respond with personalized audio warnings, lights, and strobes.

#3 On-Demand Deterrence

Employees should have the ability to create distance from a threat, not move closer to it. Rather than waiting for a security guard or hoping someone notices a problem, employees can instantly activate nearby mobile security units with a simple swipe using LVT SafeNow. Floodlights illuminate the area, strobes begin flashing, and audio warnings immediately announce that the site is actively monitored. 

#4 Emergency Response Strategy 

When people are scared, their brains don't always think clearly. Fight, flight, or freeze can set in within seconds, making even simple decisions feel overwhelming. With SafeNow, employees can immediately escalate a situation to emergency services directly from the app while remaining focused on getting themselves to safety.

Instead of scrambling for help, they already have a direct line when they need it most. At its heart, this final pillar reinforces what duty of care is really about—giving employees the confidence that if the worst should happen, they won't have to face it alone.

Think Proactive

Many companies describe their employees as their “greatest asset.” But employees pay attention to whether leaders actually believe it. Providing meaningful safety tools sends a powerful message. It says the organization has thought about:

• The nurse walking to her car at 2:00 a.m
• The construction superintendent arriving before sunrise
• The retail associate locking up after closing
• The transit employee working an overnight shift

Safety stops feeling like just another policy and starts feeling personal.

The best place to start is to stop asking "What happened?" and start asking "How do we keep it from happening at all?"

It's proactive instead of reactive, focusing on prevention instead of investigation. And, most importantly, it protects real people with real lives before they become statistics.

Mobile surveillance units, AI-powered talk down, and SafeNow help employers fulfill one of their most important responsibilities: Making sure the people who come to work each morning have every opportunity to return home that night.

“The core goal here is to make sure that employees are empowered, safe, and capable while protecting your goals and the organization's reputation at the end of the day,” said Male.

Learn how you can implement duty of care for a happier, healthier, and more productive workforce by contacting LVT for a free demo today.