EHS on Tap E289: Focusing on Frontline Worker Safety Tech Adoption
Mar 31, 2026
Michael Bruns, CEO of Novara and a 30-year software veteran focused on AI-embedded safety tools. He discusses research showing adoption gaps among frontline workers. He explains why ease of use beats features, how mobile-first design and fast first impressions matter, and how user-centric, industry-adaptable tools and AI can close the adoption gap.
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Adoption Trumps Features For Safety Tech Success
- Low frontline adoption, not software capability, is the core reason safety tech under-delivers.
- Novara found 75% of organizations still straddle paper and software and 64% prioritize increased employee engagement as the primary outcome.
Ease Of Use Means Different Things To Different Stakeholders
- Ease of use is the single most important factor when evaluating safety technology, outranking cost, features, and integrations.
- Different stakeholders define ease of use differently: fewer steps for EHS, speed and standardization for operations, and lower total cost and fast rollout for executives.
Generic Compliance Tools Clash With Frontline Realities
- Generic safety tools fail because they are often built for compliance tracking rather than how frontline work actually happens.
- In high-risk, mobile environments, rigid, time-consuming systems are ignored by workers under time pressure.