PARK RIDGE, IL -- In spring 2026, ASSP led two working sessions in Chicago and Washington, D.C. More than 95 safety professionals and industry experts participated in the convenings, which focused on preventing falls from height and lockout/tagout (LOTO) failures.

Despite different participants and locations, both sessions reached the same conclusion: the prevention gap is not a lack of safety regulations, but a failure to translate complex standards into simple, visible and executable work at the point of task.

Based on these discussions, the Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) Prevention Convening Report was developed, summarizing key themes, barriers and proposed solutions identified during the convenings. Key takeaways include:

Operational Value Over Compliance Cost: Safety is a fundamental operational driver that protects workers while preserving business continuity.

Competency Over Completion: Check-the-box annual training is failing. The workforce requires hands-on, task-specific competency verification.

Point-of-Task Usability: Workers need highly visible, plain-language guides and pictograms placed directly where exposures occur.

Prevention through Design (PtD): Moving safety upstream to eliminate hazards during the design phase removes the need for frontline heroics.

Next Steps
The Standards-Based User Groups (SBUGs) will help validate findings from the SIF Prevention Convening Report, identify additional implementation barriers and test practical solutions to challenges associated with applying consensus standards in workplace settings.

SBUG participants will also evaluate potential corrective actions, pilot implementation approaches and measure their effectiveness through peer feedback, discussion and real-world organizational experience. 

The SIF Prevention Convening Report captures what we are learning from the industry, and the SBUGs provide the structured mechanism for validating those insights and translating them into practical solutions that drive meaningful safety outcomes.

Read the full SIF Prevention Convening Report.