Safety Performance Measurement Going Beyond Lost time Injuries “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” – Drucker "If we are in the business of promoting OHS, why do we use failures as the measure of our success?" - Rose
Today, many industries and indeed regulatory agencies still focus completely on common safety performance measures such as lost time injury frequency rate and number of lost days in an effort to measure safety performance. Unfortunately, such indicators just measure failure to control and give no indication of risk management effort, which may take time to come to fruition. Such outcome ou tcome measures, when used to judge safety performance, are known as lagging indicators. Use of Lagging Indicators - Lost time injury frequency rate, severity rate, lost days etc.
Advantages •
Motivate management
•
An accepted standard
•
Long history of use
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Used by government agencies, industry associations
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Easy to calculate
•
Indicate trends in performance
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Good for self comparison
Disadvantages Reactive •
•
Easily manipulated
•
May be biased (management attitude to restricted work, Doctor influence/worker influence/worker attitude to light duties/compensation duties/compensation system/safety awards& competitions)
•
•
Figures measured are typically low making it difficult to establish trends
Incident occurs managers/safety managers/safety specialists put it down to a ‘once off/freak’ event
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Advantages & Disadvantages Disadvantages of Lagging Indicators Indicators Significantly Significantly however, what we are all seeking is continuous improvement towards an incident free workplace, yet when measuring lagging indicators indicators – we are only monitoring our performance at the last stage (how many fatalities, injuries, injuries, illnesses and what rate do we experience these in our operation?) Rather, we need to examine the processes that lead to these failures and monitor how effective our control Examples of the Application of Positive Performance Measures for Safety Objective
Indicator
Measure/monitor
All activities to be
Risk Risk Asse Assess ssme ment nt
% Ris Risk k ass asses essm smen entt com compl plet ete e
Results Track reported reported % on a
Improve Review progress at
subject to hazard
% Control measures
monthly basis by
monthly senior
analysis and risk
implemented
area/department
management
assessment
meetings, target areas for Trac Track k repo report rted ed % on a
improvement Review progress at
Procedures in place
monthly basis by
monthly senior
for critical activities
area/department
management
Written Work
Work Work proc proced edur ures es
% Writ Writte ten n proc proced edur ures es com compl plet ete e
meetings, target areas for % Scheduled inspections
Provision of safe
Work place
place of work
inspection inspection target for complete by name and work
monthly basis by
monthly senior
each frontline
area/department
management
area/dept.
Track reported reported % on a
improvement Review progress at
supervisor across whole site on a monthly basis each
meetings, target areas for
% Actions arising complete by
improvement
name and work area/dept
with specific area
Workplace visibility tour by middle and
% Visibility/Inspection Tours
senior managers in
complete
their work area once Employees working
per month Behavior based
% Employees working safely
safely
observations
% PPE compliance
Track reported reported % on a
Review progress at
monthly basis by
monthly senior
area/department
management meetings, target
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investigation
meetings, target
effectiveness Log of % Near miss incidents
areas for
corrective actions
improvement % Incident investigation complete on time % Corrective actions implemented
Safe and competent
Performance
employees
assessment
All by area/dept. area/dept. % Performance assessments complete
including training
Track reported reported % on a monthly basis by
monthly senior
area/department
management
needs identification % Scheduled training complete
meetings, target
Training Training records records Improve safety awareness
Toolbox Toolbox talks on targeted topics
areas for All by area/dept. area/dept. % Tool Box Talks complete by Dept.
monthly by all Supervisors
Review progress at
improvement Track reported reported % on a
Review progress at
monthly basis by
monthly senior
area/department
management meetings, target
% Employees attending
areas for improvement
% Actions arising complete All by Area/Dept. Area/Dept. % Safety Representatives Improve safety
Annual climate
culture
survey
Trained Overall findings based on selected criteria
Track trends trends on annual annual Review progress at basis and by area/dept annual senior
All by Area/Dept. Area/Dept.
management meetings, target areas for improvement
Examples of PPM’s for Safety Essentially PPMs are tracking the drivers of effective safety and risk management. Organizations Organizations need to recognize that there there is no single reliable reliable measure of health & safety performance, what is required is a ‘basket of measures or a ‘balanced scorecard’ providing information information on a range of health & safety activities. Measurement of PPM’s provides information on how the system operates in practice, identifies area where remedial action is required, provides a basis for continuous improvement and provides a mechanism for feedback and consequential motivation.
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your organisation. It should also be administratively administratively practicable, quantifiable & reproducible, reproducible, as objective and error free as possible and readily relate to aspect trying to control and/or goals set. It is also important to distinguish distinguish between two the types of process indicator: those, which focus on the behavior of employees and those, which measure management activity. Examples of indicators of employee behavior include; % of employees wearing PPE (safety glasses, harness etc.), % hoses rolled-up, % pre-start checks complete. One of the best features of such indicators is that merely publicizing the data within the workplace focuses attention on the problem and is likely to lead to safety improvements without the need for more direct or punitive management intervention usually within weeks not months, they are positive and focus on how good rather than how poor safety performance is involving all workers in improving safety, creating a safety culture and achieve "ownership". There is however however a significant significant drawback drawback to such indicators. indicators. They are focused on and aimed at changing the behavior of employees, not managers. Yet it is managers who are ultimately responsible responsible for health and safety and who are in the best position to lead by example and take action where necessary. Hence the importance importance of indicators, which measure the safety related activity of management. Examples here include; % of workforce who has received specific safety training, % managers participating in safety talks, % of safety audits, % risk assessments. Such management indicators can usually be assigned once management has specified its safety objectives and targets whereupon appropriate measures, which measure actual performance, can be assigned. When considering PPMs for safety, define the key activities in your safety management systems that need to be promoted, reinforced reinforced and visibly drive the culture. Select the activity measures from these. For each of these PPMs you will need to list the measure to be used, how it will be collected, calculated and reported including including the frequency of reporting. Some measures will need to be collected daily, others weekly or monthly. Most will need to be reported monthly or quarterly to be of value in monitoring performance performance (refer to examples in Table 2 for a typical site). Those chosen will vary depending on the maturity of the site and management style of the operation, significantly the measure need to be owned by the site personnel. Because PPMs can be more focused on risk areas or specific targets/objectives they may
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minimum number of PPMs relevant to an operation at the time. For example, it is not of much value reporting 100% employees have received inductions, month after month and in any case periodic audits will check systems such as this remain effective in the long term.
