CPR Compliance Isn’t Readiness

Many workplaces track CPR/AED training completion, but real survival depends on response speed, confidence, and culture. Here’s how safety leaders can close the readiness gap before a cardiac arrest happens.

• By Jeremy R. Abbott
• Feb 27, 2026

After nearly 30 years in occupational health and safety across diverse industrial, administrative, and high-risk workplaces, I’ve inspected hundreds of facilities, led investigations, evaluated safety systems, and observed how organizations respond under pressure. Through all of that, one truth has consistently risen to the top: When it comes to CPR/AED programs, compliance does not equal readiness.

Many organizations proudly tout a 100 percent training record. Everyone has their CPR card. The spreadsheet looks great. The checkboxes are filled. But when a real emergency strikes, training alone doesn’t guarantee action.

I’ve seen workplaces that were fully compliant on paper… yet completely unprepared in practice. And in a sudden cardiac arrest, where survival drops about 10% every minute without defibrillation, gaps that small become life changing.

The Comfort of Compliance

Safety professionals are used to metrics that are easy to quantify. Training completion is one of them. It’s neat, trackable, and often required. But CPR/AED performance is not measured in completion records. It’s measured in the seconds between collapse and the first shock.

Skill decay begins surprisingly fast. Multiple studies demonstrate that CPR/BLS skills begin to deteriorate within months after training. For example, a study found a significant reduction in compression quality three months post-training. Another systematic review concluded that unless skills are refreshed, performance degrades over three to six months.

Add the human-factors research showing that high-stress situations impair recall and increase hesitation. It becomes clear why even well-trained personnel may freeze when adrenaline spikes or when they fear making a mistake. Emergencies don’t happen under classroom conditions; they happen during shift turnover, during noise, during distractions, during stress.

Certification shows that someone once demonstrated competence. Readiness shows whether they’ll step forward today. And those two things are not the same.

Why People Freeze

One of the most overlooked components of CPR/AED response isn’t technical; it’s cultural. People act when they feel supported, not just trained.

In many workplaces, hesitation comes from:

• Fear of liability or doing harm
• Fear of being judged by peers
• Fear of “not being the right person.”
• Overreliance on someone else coming to help
• Lack of confidence in recalling skills

A strong CPR/AED program doesn’t just teach compressions. It teaches confidence. It creates an environment where employees feel encouraged and not intimidated to act. When organizations normalize empowered response, CPR becomes less of a heroic act and more of an expected safety behavior. And that shift can dramatically change outcomes.

The Only Metric That Truly Matters

Here’s a question I love asking leaders: “When was the last time you tested how long it takes to go from collapse to first shock in your workplace?” Most people guess a confident two to three minutes. But when we test it, the results often surprise them.

I’ve watched fully trained teams take four, five, or even six minutes to retrieve an AED and apply pads, and that’s under drill conditions. Those delays aren’t due to lack of care or competence; they’re simply the realities of human performance. I’ve spent much of my career collaborating with emergency responders, and even highly trained professionals emphasize how stress, confusion, and distance can dramatically slow an unpracticed response. When adrenaline spikes and real-world variables kick in, those minutes can stretch even further.

Common delays could include:

• AEDs are located farther away than people realize
• Badged or locked doors during certain hours
• Panic-induced decision paralysis
• Responders think someone else will handle it
• Not knowing exactly where the AED is mounted

Sudden cardiac arrest is the definition of a time-critical emergency. Unlike fires or chemical releases, there is no escalation period. No warning. No timeframe to gather resources. You either act quickly or you lose the window.

Testing actual response time is the most revealing thing a safety team can do. It uncovers weaknesses that no training certificate will ever show.

Weaving CPR/AED Into Safety Culture

If we want fast, confident responses, CPR/AED must become part of everyday safety and not just an annual training event.

Consider how we treat PPE, fall protection, and lockout/tagout. These aren’t once-a-year topics. They’re part of daily operations. When something becomes routine, it becomes reliable.

Workplaces can normalize CPR/AED through:

• Micro-practice refreshers (30–60 seconds of hands-on compressions in safety meetings)
• AED orientation for all new staff (“Find the nearest AED to your daily work area”)
• Monthly spot drills that test retrieval routes
• Visible leadership participation in skills refreshers
• Celebrating employee responders as part of the safety culture

All these actions send a clear message: This is who we are. This is what we do. We act for each other. Once CPR/AED readiness becomes culturally reinforced, hesitancy fades. People stop worrying about being perfect and start focusing on being helpful.

What High-Performing CPR/AED Programs Do Differently

Throughout my career managing occupational health and safety programs and reviewing system performance across large campuses, I’ve noticed that organizations with the strongest CPR/AED readiness share certain traits. They don’t just train… they prepare. They don’t just expect action… they enable it.

High-performing programs:

• Conduct response-time evaluations, not just training audits
• Place AEDs based on risk assessment, not wall convenience
• Train using scenarios, not lectures
• Build team-based response models (“you call, you get the AED, you start compressions”)
• Reinforce CPR skills regularly in short, digestible moments
• Prioritize cultural empowerment as much as technical skill

And importantly, they treat CPR/AED as a safety skill, not a healthcare skill.

AEDs were engineered to be used successfully by an untrained bystander. Today’s devices guide rescuers through the process with clear verbal instructions, visual diagrams, and automated rhythm analysis. Technology is incredibly forgiving; it’s built to compensate for panic, inexperience, and imperfect technique. But what the device cannot overcome is human hesitation. The real barrier to early defibrillation isn’t operational complexity; it’s workplace confidence. Employees often doubt their authority to act, underestimate their capabilities, or fear making mistakes. Building a culture where people feel empowered to use the AED is far more critical than teaching them which button to press.

A Leadership Opportunity

The readiness gap is not a reflection of employees. It reflects how we, as safety leaders, design our programs.

Leadership gets to choose:

• Whether CPR/AED is a check-the-box requirement or a practiced capability
• Whether AEDs are placed where they’re convenient or where they’re needed
• Whether employees feel confident or cautious
• Whether drills are occasional or routine
• Whether CPR is seen as optional or expected

When leaders take CPR/AED readiness seriously, employees notice. They participate more actively. They retain skills for longer. They internalize the message that stepping in isn’t just allowed; it’s valued. If we want employees to act, we must create conditions in which action feels normal.

Bearing that in mind, here are five questions safety leaders should ask about CPR readiness:

1. If cardiac arrest occurred in our workplace right now, could we confidently achieve a three-minute response? If you haven’t tested it, assume the answer is no.
2. Do our employees feel empowered, not just qualified, to take action? Confidence is built by culture, not certification.
3. When was our last AED retrieval drill or response-time exercise? Even a single drill exposes hidden delays.
4. Are our AEDs placed based on realistic risk and accessibility patterns? High-traffic or high-risk zones deserve priority over “open wall space.”
5. Does our safety program measure readiness or just training completion? Survival depends on performance, not paperwork.

Conclusion: Building a Workplace That’s Truly Ready

Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the few emergencies where responders directly influence life-or-death outcomes. And while training is essential, it is only one piece of the puzzle. True readiness comes from a culture that values rapid action, practices it regularly, and empowers people to step in without hesitation.

Safety professionals have an opportunity to reshape CPR/AED programs into something far more impactful than compliance alone. In my own safety programs, I recognize the need to meet OSHA requirements and industry standards and to address the core elements of regulatory compliance, but I don’t stop there. I think that it’s important to focus on being ready and able to do something. Following the rules is a starting point, but what really matters is being able to do things when it counts. Our training programs should not just be about getting a piece of paper that says you completed the course.

Because when life is on the line, the only thing that matters is whether someone steps forward and how quickly they do it.

This article originally appeared in the February/March 2026 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.