In order to better understand workplace injuries, Travelers recently released its 2025 Injury Impact Report, an analysis of more than 2.6 million workers’ compensation claims the company received over the past decade from businesses across numerous industries.

“We looked at trends from 2020 through 2024 and compared those with the five prior years to determine how workplace injury trends are evolving post-pandemic,” said Claude Howard, Vice President and Workers’ Compensation Claim Lead for Travelers. “We know that past losses can signal future risks. Our goal is to provide insights that can help businesses better protect their employees.”

Below, Howard and Ken Wengert, Travelers’ Vice President, Risk Control — Construction, Energy, and Marine, share their insights and recommendations based on the report’s findings.

Wengert: Construction continues to be an industry that is impacted by employee turnover and more severe injuries. We found that almost half of all construction injuries (44 percent) during the past five years involved workers who were in their first year on the job. This is a trend we’ve observed for many years and one that’s critical for contractors to keep in mind as they onboard and train new workers, since we know this cohort is particularly vulnerable to injury.

Another takeaway is that injured construction workers are taking longer to recover today than before 2020. We found that the average number of workdays an injured construction worker is off the job is up to 115, an increase of 14 workdays. That’s significant, especially when you consider that the construction industry continues to struggle to find qualified talent.

These two findings alone illustrate how vital it is for contractors to have a strong safety culture. While preventing losses through preplanning and execution remains the goal, identifying and mitigating risks to reduce the potential for injuries is very much an achievable outcome with the right strategies in place.

Wengert: Start by establishing a safety management program or reevaluating your existing one. This begins with identifying the risks your workforce faces, both generally and specific to individual job sites; looking at past incidents to pinpoint root causes; and using this information to guide you as you develop safety policies, procedures, and controls designed to address your exposures. Two critical success factors here are management involvement and organization-wide communication of the plan.

Next, focus on onboarding and training to establish safe work practices. And, while we know first-year workers are among the most vulnerable, don’t limit training to only new workers. Instead, make it an ongoing process so your more-tenured employees are getting refresher training. Be consistent with organization-wide communication of safety strategies. This approach helps to reinforce the company’s commitment to safety.

Regularly solicit feedback from employees, too. This can be a way to gain valuable insight into what is and is not working so that adjustments can be made. It can uncover risks that you might otherwise have been unaware of, enabling you to take action to mitigate them. It also encourages employees to keep safety at the forefront of their workdays.

Then, be prepared for when an injury does occur. We recommend having a post-injury management plan in place, which outlines the sequence of activities that need to occur, starting with responding immediately and helping the injured employee get the care they need. Other steps can include establishing a relationship with a medical provider who has experience treating construction job site injuries, being attentive to the injured employee during their recovery, identifying transitional duties, and providing attentive case management.

Howard: I’d add that not every recovery is the same, and there can be a variety of factors that may impact this process, including some that are not physical problems. Psychosocial factors that may impede an individual’s ability to return to work include symptoms of anxiety and depression, feelings of perceived injustice, or catastrophic thinking. We’ve found in a separate analysis of Travelers claim data that 40 percent of workers who lose time from work have one or more psychosocial risk factors. Keeping this in mind is important as you think through how you’ll support and engage workers who are injured.

Wengert: Contractors can start by analyzing incidents and near misses to identify potential gaps and opportunities for improvement. Determine if safety procedures were or were not followed and develop corrective actions to help prevent similar occurrences in the future.

Regularly evaluating safety strategies in this way can help contractors refine and improve them. And, as mentioned before, encouraging feedback from everyone on the job site can be useful in uncovering potentially overlooked or unrecognized hazards.

Wengert: When you consider that the average workplace injury in the construction industry takes 115 days to recover from, keeping more workers safe and productive can have a significant, positive impact on morale and your ability to keep any project on track and on budget. This can also help with employee retention and attracting future workers to your organization.