By EMA Manager of Employment Relations & Safety Paul Jarvie.

Manufacturing accounted for 29,224 injury claims in 2024. It was one of the industries with the highest incidence rates of work-related claims last year. Statistics like this underline the sector’s long and tortuous health and safety journey.

But insights from the 2025 Workforce Insights Programme tell a story worth celebrating. Released in late October, it outlines a sector that’s maturing, learning and adapting.

While we still have work to do, manufacturing is quietly becoming a safer, smarter industry. In fact, the data confirm that health and safety culture in manufacturing has moved from compliance to commitment.

The report found that 86%  of manufacturers made changes to improve workplace safety in the past year.

More than two-thirds of employers now rate themselves as having a high maturity level in understanding health and safety responsibilities, and almost three-quarters believe they fully understand the risks their people face on the job.

We’re seeing what leadership looks like when it’s genuine. In manufacturing, 95% of employers encourage staff to speak up about safety, and three-quarters regularly discuss health and safety matters through toolbox talks, team meetings and health and safety representatives.

Worker satisfaction with employer responses has jumped to 80%, up from 73% last year. That’s a sign of trust in the workplace, and trust is what keeps people honest about risk.

The report also highlights strong activity in tackling known risks, ones that have historically driven high injury rates. Musculoskeletal disorders (sprains, strains, and repetitive injuries) remain the most common form of harm in manufacturing.

But, encouragingly, 91% of manufacturers now train staff in safe manual handling, 54% vary work tasks to reduce repetition, and 45% provide lifting aids. That’s a significant investment in people’s long-term health.

Once a weak spot, machine guarding has also improved. Eighty-two percent of manufacturers now fit physical guards to machinery, 66% ensure clear machine controls, and over half have installed emergency stop devices.

Add to that the 60% who’ve upgraded personal protective equipment (PPE) and the 53% who’ve changed work practices, and you can see a sector making tangible progress on multiple fronts.

Manufacturing may only make up about 10% of New Zealand’s workforce, but it still accounts for around 15% of all workplace injury claims, roughly 32,900 incidents each year. That translates to an injury rate of 139 per 1,000 employees.

It’s still too high, but when you consider the complexity of modern manufacturing, the data show clear momentum in the right direction.

The strongest lever for improvement, according to WorkSafe’s Bayesian Insights for Manufacturing, isn’t equipment or compliance, it’s employer belief. The modelling shows that knowing your health and safety responsibilities is the single most powerful driver of change. Employers who view safety as a business benefit rather than a cost, and who make it a visible leadership priority, are far more likely to implement effective safety measures.

In manufacturing, 68% of employers now hold this mature understanding of their obligations, but only 51% strongly believe that health and safety is “good for business”. That gap matters, because belief drives behaviour.

When leaders see safety as an investment in productivity, retention and reputation, rather than an expense, the whole organisation benefits.

Professional advice is another proven catalyst. Fifty-three percent of manufacturing employers sought guidance from safety professionals or WorkSafe in the past year, and those that did were significantly more likely to implement further improvements.

At the EMA, we know this only too well as we’ve been delivering health and safety training for decades and we now take learners all the way through to the NZ Diploma in Workplace Health and Safety Management (Level 6).

We celebrated our 100^th graduate of the Level 6 programme recently and we’ve also launched our Safety AdviceLine to fill a gap for businesses who need fast and effective guidance.

Once you start down the path of expert engagement, you build the systems and confidence to keep improving.

That said, the WorkSafe data also show areas needing attention. Only 48% of manufacturers regularly review the effectiveness of their risk controls. In other words, nearly half aren’t checking whether their safety systems still work once they’re in place.

And while 75% have workers exposed to machinery, only 16% have advanced machinery controls, like presence-sensing systems.

The hierarchy of controls also reveals an over-reliance on the least effective measures — PPE and administrative controls — rather than eliminating or engineering out hazards.

For example, 93% of manufacturers use PPE, 81% provide protective clothing and gloves, and 77% receive health and safety information, but only 25% substitute hazardous substances with safer alternatives, and just 13% use isolation measures to keep workers away from risks.

These numbers suggest that while frontline protection is strong, deeper risk elimination remains the real frontier.

PPE training and fit testing are also inconsistent, particularly for respirators. This may seem like a small detail, but poor-fitting respiratory protection can be the difference between a long healthy career and chronic illness.

To consolidate these gains, we need a coordinated manufacturing sector action plan that focuses on the three big levers for change: belief, engagement and review.

In our health and safety advocacy, we stress that safety needs to be treated as a performance driver.

Manufacturers who treat health and safety as integral to productivity will not only see fewer injuries but also lower downtime, higher retention, and better product quality. Leadership training and peer benchmarking can help reinforce that mindset.

The data show engagement works and that satisfaction and safety outcomes rise when workers have a voice.

Every manufacturing business, regardless of size, should have structured conversations about health and safety, whether through toolbox talks, digital reporting tools, or regular team reviews.

Half of manufacturers aren’t regularly reviewing controls. Embedding a review culture, alongside investment in automation, presence-sensing machinery, and safer chemical substitutes, will shift manufacturing up the hierarchy of controls.

These are the long-term gains that build resilience.

New Zealand manufacturing is proving that culture change is possible. We’ve moved from reactive compliance to proactive improvement.

That progress must now be protected, by continuing to invest in leadership capability, data-driven insights, and smarter engineering solutions.

Overall, the report is welcome news and does indicate a sustained drive towards safer workplaces for employees.

As monetary policy eases and production picks up, let’s ensure that growth doesn’t come at the cost of safety.

 Because the only thing more costly than good health and safety is bad health and safety.