Frontline harm. On the record.
For most frontline workers we survey, abuse is part of a typical month.
AWARE is a continuing measure of frontline abuse and what it leaves behind. It connects three things that are normally counted separately: what workers face, what their employer does about it, and how they are faring afterwards. We reviewed 130 studies and surveys in the year to August 2026 and did not find another that joins all three.
This first reading draws on 9,502 workers surveyed in UK Retail, US Retail and UK Healthcare. From October it publishes monthly, so the next reading is a comparison rather than a repeat.
One reading is a baseline. We claim no trend until repeated readings support one.
Data collection is continuous.
AWARE is founded and funded by Reveal Media Limited, which makes body-worn cameras and evidence management software for the sectors AWARE studies. AWARE sells nothing and recommends nothing. It publishes what workers report.
01 · A unique data set
The AWARE Index
The AWARE Index is how we read what workers tell us. It holds together three things usually measured apart: what workers experience from customers or patients, how their employers respond, and how workers say they are feeling.
We report separate Exposure, Support and Wellbeing scores for each workforce. We never combine different workforces into one overall AWARE score: averaging a nurse in Leeds with a shop worker in Ohio would not mean anything.
The Index is our measure, not an industry standard. It does not rank or name employers, and it makes no recommendations. Every percentage behind every score is published alongside it, with the full calculation explained on the method page.
The input
Exposure
▼ want it falling
What workers experience from customers or patients.
- Verbally abused in the past month
- Abused three or more times
- Threatened or physically attacked
The response
Support
▲ want it rising
What their employer provides and what happens afterwards.
- Provision: whether workers are required to report incidents, and whether reporting is quick
- Follow-through: whether workers feel supported, action is taken and managers respond well
The outcome
Wellbeing
▲ want it rising
The outcome that matters most.
- How workers feel about going to work
- Self-rated mental health
- Whether they intend to stay
a cause · a response · a consequence
All three scores run from 0 to 100. A lower Exposure score is better. Higher Support and Wellbeing scores are better. A higher Support score can reflect stronger provision, better follow-through, or both. Each workforce is reported separately, and the percentages behind every score are published alongside it.
Each worker’s score is calculated from the questions they answer, then averaged across the workforce. In Exposure, threats and physical attacks count twice because they are more serious. Wellbeing’s three parts carry equal weight. We publish both the scores and the underlying figures so readers can see how each result is reached.
02 · What workers report
Verbal abuse is routine.
Verbal abuse is part of a typical month for most frontline workers. Of 3,144 UK Retail workers surveyed, 81.8% are verbally abused in the past month. In US Retail it is 84.9% of 4,161, and in UK Healthcare 78.2% of 2,197. Nearly half are abused three or more times.
Threats and physical attacks are far more common in UK Healthcare. Nearly six in ten UK Healthcare workers experience them in the past month, compared with just over one in three UK Retail workers and three in ten US Retail workers.
Verbally abused by a customer or patient, in the past month
Verbally abused three or more times inside the same month
Threatened or physically attacked, in the past month
Bases and fieldwork
UK Retail · 3,144 · 9 May 2026 to 31 July 2026
US Retail · 4,161 · 16 May 2026 to 31 July 2026
UK Healthcare · 2,197 · 2 June 2026 to 29 July 2026
03 · What their employer does about it
Around six in ten workers feel poorly supported.
Around six in ten workers feel poorly supported by their employer after an incident, in every workforce: 59.7%, 59.0% and 65.2%.
Required to report an incident
Felt poorly supported by their employer after an incident
Answered whether reporting is required: 2,156 UK Retail · 2,851 US Retail · 1,482 UK Healthcare. Faced aggression and answered on employer support: 2,554 · 3,504 · 1,715.
04 · What it leaves behind
More than half of every workforce say their mental health is poor.
More than half of every workforce rates their own mental health poor or very poor. 56.9% in UK Retail, 55.3% in US Retail and 55.9% in UK Healthcare. Around six in ten feel negative about going to work. On both of those measures, the workforce facing the most abuse and the workforce facing the least end up in almost the same place.
Rated their own mental health poor or very poor
Feel negative about going to work
Self-rated mental health: 3,140 · 4,161 · 2,197. Answered the mood question: 3,144 · 4,161 · 2,197.
How much this matters is the finding the first full reading publishes in September: among workers facing the same level of abuse, those who feel supported by their employer report markedly better wellbeing than those who do not.
How we asked
We ask workers in UK Retail, US Retail and UK Healthcare the same questions wherever possible. Where a question differs, we say so. We report each workforce separately and never average their results together.
Before an answer is included, we verify that the person works in that sector. So far, 3,144 UK Retail workers, 4,161 US Retail workers and 2,197 UK Healthcare workers have taken part.
There is one difference in how we ask about threats and physical attacks. Retail workers answer a single question covering both. Healthcare workers answer separate questions about threats and physical attacks, which we then combine to make the comparison as consistent as possible.
How respondents are gathered: people volunteer after seeing the survey advertised, almost entirely on Meta platforms. That makes it a self-selecting survey rather than a representative sample of everyone in the sector. No trend is claimed until there are enough readings to support one.
How we know this. We surveyed 9,502 people working in UK Retail, US Retail and UK Healthcare. Every respondent confirms their sector, their role and that they deal with the public before their answers are counted. Fieldwork ran from 9 May 2026 to 31 July 2026; bases and exact dates for each workforce are given under the charts above. Percentages are of respondents in each population, not of all frontline workers.
No employer is named, ranked or scored, in any figure we publish. Respondents are told their employer will never see their individual response.
The full method and every published figure: Method and the findings.
05 · Why AWARE exists
We have not found another measure that joins what workers face, how employers respond and how workers feel.
Police records count crimes that were reported and then recorded, which is a fraction of what happens, and they say nothing about what followed. Employer incident logs count what entered a system, so they measure reporting behaviour as much as harm. Health and safety reporting captures injury, not the abuse that leaves no mark. Annual staff surveys ask once a year, by which point most of a year has been forgotten. Each measures something real. Nobody joins them up, and nobody asks frontline workers continuously.
A customer who seriously injures a shop worker may appear only as a recordable accident, indistinguishable in the company’s published health and safety figures from a fall off a ladder. A customer who threatens to wait for a worker in the car park may leave no trace in any published figure.
No reporting standard requires an employer to count how often customers abuse its staff. Where employers ask anyway, what follows often goes nowhere: 39.9% of UK Retail workers who are required to report say the incident is logged and forgotten. Asked why not, the most common answer in UK Retail is that there is no point, and in UK Healthcare that abuse is seen as part of the job.
AWARE starts at the other end, asking workers directly, continuously. It asks what they experience from customers or patients, how their employer responds and how they feel afterwards. Looking at all three together gives a fuller picture than any one measure can provide. An incident does not have to be formally reported to count. So far, workers tell us that, for most of them, abuse is part of a typical month.
06 · Publishing monthly
From October, AWARE publishes monthly.
Until now this has been a research release. From October it becomes a continuing reading, published every month, so change can be measured. The figures on this page are the first look; the full reading brings the Index scores, the differences between the three workforces and the relationships underneath them.
Journalists. The figures, the charts and the full tables are yours to use. Ask for the release list and you will have each reading on the day it publishes.
Workers. The survey stays open. What you report is what gets published.
Employers and organisations. If you measure this yourselves, we would like to compare notes.
AWARE will also publish reporting and analysis from others working on frontline harm, credited and linked. The aim is one place where the evidence can be found, followed and understood.
If you work frontline in UK or US Retail, or in UK Healthcare, you can take part in a future reading: hello@theawareindex.com
07 · Build AWARE with us
We are looking for partnerships
We are already approaching academics, unions, policy makers, employers and charities we think will have a view. If that is you, or you know someone it should be, we want to hear from you.
If you employ frontline workers, we would like to hear from you. AWARE publishes nothing about an individual employer, at any level, in any figure.
Use the figures
Use our figures in your own work. We publish who answered, when they answered and how every figure is calculated, so you can check it. We would rather you did.
Shape what we ask next
Tell us what the questionnaire is missing. If there is an important question we are not asking, we want to know.
Set your evidence beside ours
Many people have studied frontline abuse for years. Send us your research or data. We credit it and link to it.
If you would like to contribute, contact hello@theawareindex.com
The next reading publishes in October.
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