Top 10 EHS Challenges 2025: My Review One Year Later

Show Notes

Happy New Year 2026! In this episode, Sheldon Primus reviews his eBook Top 10 EHS Challenges for 2025 and gives himself a scorecard: Hit, Partial, Mixed, or Evergreen. He breaks down what “regulatory scrutiny” really looks like (enforcement, rulemaking, and data transparency), highlights why climate and heat planning became a major operational focus, and explains why remote work and mental health remained real EHS issues—not just HR topics.

You’ll also hear practical examples tied to real-world signals (OSHA reporting/data transparency, training gaps reflected in common standards, public health guidance, and cyber/ICS attention). Sheldon closes with a forward-looking challenge: stop relying only on lagging metrics and start building leading indicators—like EAP utilization trends, hazard reporting rates, and near-miss learning—to predict risk before incidents happen.

Plus: Sheldon shares how to access a free proposal mini-course + template and invites you to Safety Consultant 101 (free live workshop).

What is The Safety Consultant Podcast?

The Safety Consultant Podcast with Sheldon Primus is your ultimate weekly guide to starting or growing a profitable occupational safety and health consulting business. Are you ready to be your own boss and make a greater impact? Your expertise can help more people create safer workplaces, and your skills deserve a platform where they can truly shine. If you feel limited in your current role and believe your knowledge could serve the broader workforce more effectively, this podcast is for you. Join us as we explore the steps to launch your own safety consulting business, share insights on navigating the industry, and provide strategies to maximize your impact on workplace health and safety. Now is the perfect time to take control of your career and make a difference!

[SPEAKER_02]: If you work in the safety field, which I think most of you are, listening to me, then I got something that should get your attention.

[SPEAKER_02]: Andrews, rates can improve while the total cost of the Andrews stands painful.

[SPEAKER_02]: I kept between the matrix and what the operation feels, you know.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you may know it as the black line blue line theory.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's what I'm going to talk about in this episode.

[SPEAKER_02]: And today I'm grading my own work.

[SPEAKER_02]: Last year, some you downloaded my ebook, which is Top 10 EHS Challenges for 2025.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now it's 2026.

[SPEAKER_02]: Happy New Year to you.

[SPEAKER_02]: I made predictions about what the tape and what each has should look like and just in a hurry industry, what it should look like in 2025.

[SPEAKER_02]: So now I'm going to compare those predictions as what I actually saw so that you guys could see how well we did.

[SPEAKER_02]: You need to, you know, one thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, I'll tell you where, you know, it's right, where I was partly right, where I could change if I ever wrote the book, stuff like that or anything.

[SPEAKER_02]: So stay tuned, and we're going to have a very, very good informative episode.

[SPEAKER_02]: So stand on by, and we'll get this thing started.

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Safety Consultant Show with Sheldon primus, where we blend safety sparks with business brilliance and the pitch of Sheldon's signature wit, whether you're a safety pro of fresh face consultant or just safety curious, get ready for a show that will educate, entertain and elevate your safety game.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's dive into the art of consulting with your safety shirt for himself, Sheldon primus.

[SPEAKER_01]: This episode is powered by Safety FM.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, well, welcome to everybody.

[SPEAKER_02]: Happy New Year's, 20, 26.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, I'd say, Gunna.

[SPEAKER_02]: So as you can tell in my intro we're going to truly start working with you guys to see how I did last your towards this year, but I can't be from this into welcoming those of you who have not met me yet, my name is Charlotte Primus, I'm the host of the show, safety consultant,

[SPEAKER_02]: podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: See, it changed the name.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just like that, the name has changed.

[SPEAKER_02]: Safety consultant to podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I work with these EHNS professionals who want to be consultants, your trainers, you know, you're people who are safety cultures strategist.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's a, I like that street safety cultures strategist.

[SPEAKER_02]: I help you with that stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: I help you with the business of being a safety professional.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, let's do this thing the right way because I also want to let you guys know a nice big disclaimer.

[SPEAKER_02]: There is a disclaimer to all this and one of the biggest things that I do need to tell you is there's a time like between some of my data and what I could sustain shape and some of the things that are going to be just you're you're you're not going to get this information until maybe next year or the year after

[SPEAKER_02]: depending on pure elapsed statistics, depending on OSHA.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I just want to at least let you guys know that one.

[SPEAKER_02]: There is a time delay in some of my predictions.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just want to get that out there.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to give you guys my recap, if you would, for the best available, confirmed data, plus other real world signals from companies like Liberty Mutual and using some Liberty Mutual data

[SPEAKER_02]: most recent.

[SPEAKER_02]: The Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS, you'll hear me say BLS a few times.

[SPEAKER_02]: BLS has a couple of index out there.

[SPEAKER_02]: One of them that I am going to use is going to be the index that is related to fatality data.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to use that one because

[SPEAKER_02]: Honestly, it's one of the biggest things we've got to deal with, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: So, census for fatality, first gives me for fatal occupational injuries, that is a BLS data set.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, I'll be using that.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to hear me say ICS, which is industrial control systems, you know, like your skita systems, it's stuff that the computer guys are operating.

[SPEAKER_02]: You hear me say OT, which is operational technology, IT, informational technology.

[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe even PTW permission or your permit to work.

[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of, of course, like out tag out learning management system, LMS.

[SPEAKER_02]: AR and VR virtual reality is VR and AR is augmented reality that's for training models.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'll even throw in some AI and IOT, which is artificial intelligence and information of things.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'll talk about the injury tracking application, those you guys who are under OSHA's jurisdiction you guys going to do that right now, your ITA, you know, let me say that.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'll even talk about survey of occupational injuries and illnesses, which is a BLS product, S-O-I-I.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you're going to hear those terms in I-I-F, which is injury illness, fatality.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's a BLS one.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'll even throw in a few terms of total,

[SPEAKER_02]: I've talked about TRI or in a lot of classes, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Days away from work, cases, TFE, or excuse me, FDE, which is full-time equivalent hours.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's oceans the way that they measure the kind of work force that they do.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to mention stuff like that, even a workplace safety index from Liberty Mutual, global supply chain, pressure index from the New York Fed supply chain indicators.

[SPEAKER_02]: Stuff like that, you're going to hear me say, so I'm going to give you guys all those acronyms right now, so that you're going to be aware of.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, there's some agencies I'm going to talk about, CISA, which is cyber security and information, cyber security and infrastructure security agency.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the feds already told you guys about, it makes us from ASSP data, the national bureau of even in economic resource ASSP, American Society of Safety Professionals, we got to put that in, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, so that's some of the stuff that I'm going to mention today, so I want to make sure that you guys have that information.

[SPEAKER_02]: And again, there is a delay in some of this stuff, so I want to make sure that you guys will know how that, you know, I'm grading with the green and myself with the curve.

[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, so here are some of the things that I am, or at least, here's my scaling.

[SPEAKER_02]: I will call something a hit if I truly can say that there's clear signs to show that what I predicted actually have.

[SPEAKER_02]: partial is something I'm going to use to just say that it looks like I hit a portion of this prediction, but maybe not exactly.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mixed is going to be where, you know, there's...

[SPEAKER_02]: At least moving parts to it, it's something that is going to be where it's going to have certain nuances.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to call that mixed and then evergreen is something I'm going to call where it's constantly going.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's, you know, it's something that is always in action.

[SPEAKER_02]: So hit partial mixed and evergreen.

[SPEAKER_02]: Those are the terms you're going to hear me say.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so let's give you guys a snapshot of at least some of the things that I talked about.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, I'm, can I just give you a quick kind of a hit or a missed thing, but this is the 10 categories that I went over.

[SPEAKER_02]: Number one was decreased regulatory scrutiny and changes.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to score myself mixed on this one.

[SPEAKER_02]: There is in some areas that we do have some scrutiny, however, meaning transparency.

[SPEAKER_02]: However, not in all cases, so I'm giving myself a mixed score on that one.

[SPEAKER_02]: climate change and environmental sustainability.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to get myself a hit on that one.

[SPEAKER_02]: I nailed it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Workplace safety and health for age and age of remote work is one of the other ones number three.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm giving myself a direct hit on that one too, because of some of the resources that I found.

[SPEAKER_02]: Number four, I said advanced technology and automation.

[SPEAKER_02]: I got a partial on this one.

[SPEAKER_02]: Some things are working, some things are not.

[SPEAKER_02]: Supply chain vulnerabilities.

[SPEAKER_02]: There are some things with the supply chain that I didn't know idea would happen.

[SPEAKER_02]: Those are the U.S. You know what I'll talk in about.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to get myself a partial on this one.

[SPEAKER_02]: Next one, then I'm going to get a number six, was rising importance of mental health, so that one is another one that I'm going to give myself a direct hit on, meaning that nailed it.

[SPEAKER_02]: cyber security threats and industrial control systems.

[SPEAKER_02]: So those skaters systems, they just told you that it's about.

[SPEAKER_02]: I do have some good data that says, hey, I'm not wrong on this one.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's other agencies looking out for this.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to call this one a hit, now it's number seven.

[SPEAKER_02]: Number eight, evolving needs for training.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to again give myself a hit on this one.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of people who need some training, and there's more and more complexity to training.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I think this one was a hit for myself on this one.

[SPEAKER_02]: So,

[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't do too bad.

[SPEAKER_02]: Number nine, I said one of the trends would be public health, preparedness, and bio-security hit.

[SPEAKER_02]: You think my battleship.

[SPEAKER_02]: So we give people a look at that one up.

[SPEAKER_02]: Leadership and cultural change.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is where I had to create a new category and I call it Evergreen, so that means that this category is going to be one of those things that is ongoing fixed, it's a going concern for your agencies.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I am giving myself Evergreen on that one.

[SPEAKER_02]: So again, when I see Evergreen, it's ongoing, it's something that we're going to have to keep

[SPEAKER_02]: So those are my 10 things that I predicted in 2024 to be the things that will come up for 2025.

[SPEAKER_02]: We've gone through 2025.

[SPEAKER_02]: My data set is not complete yet, but at least I'm given that a try.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, while we come back, I'm going to go ahead and talk to you a little bit more in detail about what we did.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, I'll just hang tight, and I'll be right back with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be back with more of Sheldon primus and the St.y.

[SPEAKER_00]: Consultant Show in just a moment.

[SPEAKER_02]: ever catch yourself thinking I could do this on my own.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you're a safety officer with real-world skills, you'll have to wait for permission to build your freedom.

[SPEAKER_02]: But Saturday January 31st, I'm hosting Safety Consultant 101, a free live workshop.

[SPEAKER_02]: In two hours I'll help you package your expertise into a service clients will pay for and set pricing boundaries so you don't get stuck doing free advice forever.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're just doing now at safetyconsultant101.com.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's build your freedom.

[SPEAKER_00]: We now return to the Safety Consultant Show.

[SPEAKER_00]: Once again, here's Sheldon Primus.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, gang, I am back.

[SPEAKER_02]: So let's go over some of these things.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so my first thing that I talked about was just increased scrutiny on what I call scrutiny.

[SPEAKER_02]: So on just regulatory stuff.

[SPEAKER_02]: So scrutiny, I'm going to have to break down into three basic things, enforcement.

[SPEAKER_02]: rule making and data transparency.

[SPEAKER_02]: So currently in OSHA and I'm going to just do this from like the OSHA mindset.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right.

[SPEAKER_02]: There has been some more data transparency specifically with record keeping.

[SPEAKER_02]: The OSHA website still tells you a whole bunch of data related to injuries and illnesses.

[SPEAKER_02]: BLS has some data on injury illness fatalities.

[SPEAKER_02]: Some more things there, a heat has been one of the things that has been, and this kind of goes into on number two as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: But OSHA actually started doing some role-making on the heat, but enforcement has been down.

[SPEAKER_02]: So this one is one of those mixed ones.

[SPEAKER_02]: So there is an order from President Trump in the U.S. that says that he's looking for a less regulation.

[SPEAKER_02]: So for every new rules, they have to be some old rules being taken out.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you look at the OSHA budget, the OSHA budget is now looking to update existing standards.

[SPEAKER_02]: So they're not going to be any new standards, not many.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so that's why I'm going to go ahead and say for this one, it is a, it's, it's a mixed one for me.

[SPEAKER_02]: Next theme that I had that I talked about was on the impact of the environment, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And heat, extreme heat, and operational resilience is one of the big things that happened last year, especially with the heat stress thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: So there's a couple of things and if you guys said the E-book I told you you have different ways of preventing or helping yourself out for each topic, but hopefully you've started a heat plan, you know, exposure to control plan for heat.

[SPEAKER_02]: Telling supervisors and being more aware of what bulb test and nothing else, the water shade, rest, accompanizations, emergency response, building that into your schedule, stuff like that.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's the stuff that is just telling you guys to be aware of.

[SPEAKER_02]: Next one was talked about remote work and mental health.

[SPEAKER_02]: That one I'm seeing is a hit because there've been a lot of things that we've really been talking about with mental health and you want to make sure that you have an employee assistance program available for your workers and if you're consulted that's one of the things that I would love.

[SPEAKER_02]: for you to start talking to your clients about making that available.

[SPEAKER_02]: But that topic has really, really started to just, it's blossoming if you would.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because we're thinking ergonomics at home, the bloodlines between when people shut off of work.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when they do start working, the isolation, because they're going to be stuck in the home and that in the office.

[SPEAKER_02]: bodies fatigue.

[SPEAKER_02]: So there's a lot of things that went on with that one, especially in healthcare and workplace violence prevention programs that are out there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Calo should start a new standard last year.

[SPEAKER_02]: Don't miss.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that's why I gave myself a hit on that one.

[SPEAKER_02]: Next thing I talked about was the security for cyber security and take security.

[SPEAKER_02]: We have to build some resilience and the resilience part is been really hard for some agencies to build.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to give you guys a little bit

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's go ahead and mention, I'm scrolling up here.

[SPEAKER_02]: It took some notes.

[SPEAKER_02]: So let's say, New York says, here's the supply chain thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're not up to that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the technology part.

[SPEAKER_02]: So 2024, OSHA's data set on 300 A logs, 300 and 301s.

[SPEAKER_02]: So we can't really see the 300 and 301s, but we can see the 300 A's.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's truly been a large scale data reporting and analytics that came from that while Liberty Mutual all the stuff that you're going to see from you are All the data set that you were going to get or have been getting from your labor statistics.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's the stuff that I'm talking about.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, honestly, do you want to get on that one?

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so let's also make sure that I mentioned another data set that I forgot to mention before.

[SPEAKER_02]: growing down, there we go.

[SPEAKER_02]: So with the mental health, there's an HR 2531 from the Congress and a son for OSHA Federal OSHA to issue workplace violence prevention standards for healthcare and social services.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I didn't mention that before.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I just want to put that in there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Cisco released 32 industrial control system advisories in April of 2025.

[SPEAKER_02]: So 32, that's December 31.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's been a bunch of that one.

[SPEAKER_02]: Supply chains.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's number five.

[SPEAKER_02]: And they're going round, round, and here for data.

[SPEAKER_02]: New York feds supply chain pressure index registered a negative 0.29 in April of 2024 which is below average and that's supply chain thing I told you that I'm was I knew something would happen.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just didn't know why because I'm thinking pandemic, but honestly was a pandemic.

[SPEAKER_02]: It was tariffs.

[SPEAKER_02]: So that behavior for procurement and everything else was really challenged last year.

[SPEAKER_02]: So let's see.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're evolving needs for training.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm down to eight.

[SPEAKER_02]: I went kind of outdoors for give me guys.

[SPEAKER_02]: It seems right now for training that it's not really validating competency as much as it is, or as to say, just not training for content.

[SPEAKER_02]: You want to make sure people understand.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you all want to make sure that it's going to be instituted correctly.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, if you're looking at OSHA's guidelines, they're going to say they're most frequently sightest-standard.

[SPEAKER_02]: The way that I prove that I did really well on this one is I just looked for what kind of standards was sighted the most and has come, letters, respiratory protection, lockout tag out machine guarding.

[SPEAKER_02]: All of those have a training component, so it looks like even OSHA thing and a work with the individuals trained them more and then you're going to avoid some of these.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's the correlation that made on this one.

[SPEAKER_02]: public health preparedness and biosecurity, obviously, this one was a hit for me, because even the CDC published May 6th and the interim guideline on how to reduce influenza in the workplace, that's their public health, and then talking about other viruses in the workplace.

[SPEAKER_02]: So they're looking for some sort of security there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Number 10 was the Evergreen one that I talked to you guys about, which was leadership and cultural change.

[SPEAKER_02]: So with the leadership model, most of us are going to be talking about the safety management system or mentioned something about that.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's going to truly be up to the leadership to constantly look to see what they could be better to take leadership over safety in hell,

[SPEAKER_02]: That's where you get your culture talk All right, so I gave you guys a little round around and out of a few things that I I mentioned in my predictions That were hits That were mixed and gave you some data related to that Honestly, I don't know if I'm doing another one of these in top 10 predictions because it was kind of hard for me to think it through However

[SPEAKER_02]: I think that, you know, we should really start thinking about for ourselves how to start predicting things as best as we can.

[SPEAKER_02]: Looking for a leader leading indicators to safety, so maybe employee action plan utilization, get some sort of rate for that.

[SPEAKER_02]: has a reporting rate, and near-missure stuff, those are the things that you're going to want to really push your clients to get them to understand that, you know, honestly.

[SPEAKER_02]: You should start looking for proactive things, leading indicators, not liking indicators.

[SPEAKER_02]: What is next?

[SPEAKER_02]: I want you to start thinking for yourselves, you know, how can I get my clients to start thinking of of leading indicators, or think lagging indicators?

[SPEAKER_02]: How do I start looking to ways to predict?

[SPEAKER_02]: different client and different types of behaviors that I'm seeing in a work place for those of you that aren't consultant yet to stop myself there and because some of you are planning to be consultant so just want to at least let you know that that's some of the things you should be thinking of to help for

[SPEAKER_02]: I do have a couple of things I wanted to let you guys know that I'm doing.

[SPEAKER_02]: So, we need to some help with proposals.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's one of the biggest things that I've seen.

[SPEAKER_02]: People saying, hey, y'all then you have a proposal template.

[SPEAKER_02]: You have a template.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you have anything up proposals?

[SPEAKER_02]: So, I do.

[SPEAKER_02]: Go to safety.contractors, safety.contractors, and if you have some sort of system that messes with you and you can't do that, then go to safetyconsultant.ai.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so that's the two different domains, safety-consultant.au or safety.contractors, and when you get there, whichever one works for you, I gave you guys two different links there, but whichever works for you, you're going to get a free proposal for many course.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you're going to get a template, one of my templates on proposals.

[SPEAKER_02]: So again, this is the need that I hear often about how do you do proposals.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to answer that with a free proposal mini course and a template.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you go to safety.contractors or safety consultant at that AI.

[SPEAKER_02]: And one last thing, I am also doing my safety consultant workshop, so it's safety consultant 101.

[SPEAKER_02]: I missed last year, but I've done these in previous years, and it's a two-hour event, instead of four hours like before, I'm condensing it, because some of you don't have four hours to give on a Saturday, so I hear you.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I can dance down to two hours, and we're going to really just focus on how to get

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's going to be a live event, so you're going to have me live.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's two hours, but it's really going to stretch a little longer because I'm giving us a break in the middle and I want to make sure I catch up the break time and then I give you a little time for networking earlier.

[SPEAKER_02]: So on the event page, you'll see three hours, but the content is going to be two hours worth of that.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so to get there, safety consultant 101.com.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's a free event, so register today, so you guys can make it.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's going to be on January 31st of this year, 2026.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so...

[SPEAKER_02]: given you guys a lot today.

[SPEAKER_02]: I created myself on my predictions from last year's ebook.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't get out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just about hard hats and caution side, it's about business smarts too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for joining us on the safety consultant show with Sheldon primers.

[SPEAKER_00]: Until next time, stay safe, stay savvy, and keep consulting like a boss.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, get up.

[SPEAKER_00]: The views and opinions expressed on this podcast or broadcast are those of the host in its guest and non-necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the company.

[SPEAKER_00]: Examples of analysis discussed within the past hour only examples.

[SPEAKER_00]: It should not be utilized in the real world as the only solution available, as they are based only on very limited and dated open source information.

[SPEAKER_00]: Assumption made within this analysis are not reflective of the positions of the company.

[SPEAKER_00]: No part of this podcast of broadcast may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means mechanical electronic recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the creator of the podcast or broadcasts held in primus.

[SPEAKER_01]: This episode has been powered by Safety FM.

[SPEAKER_02]: Never catch yourself thinking I could do this on my own.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you're a safety officer with real world skills, you don't have to wait for permission to build your freedom.

[SPEAKER_02]: But Saturday, January 31st, I'm hosting Safety Consultant 101, a free live workshop.

[SPEAKER_02]: In two hours, I hope you package your expertise into a service clients will pay for and set pricing boundaries, so you don't get stuck doing free advice forever.

[SPEAKER_02]: Register now at safetyconsultant101.com.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's build your freedom.