Community Forum – Safety Metrics

What are your leading safety metrics?

We are the process of taking a critical look at our leading safety metrics (predictive injury metrics) and have narrowed down the list with strongest correlation to injuries as follows:

1.  Management commitment

• Completion percentage of routine workspace walk arounds and activity observations
• Number of management sponsored safety program evaluations

2.  Employee involvement

• Safety training timeliness and percentage completion
• Number of identified opportunities for improvement and reported near misses

3.  Continuous improvement

• Completion timeliness for corrective and preventative action

Are these leading indicators that your organization uses to monitor potential causes of accidents?  Do you find these safety metrics have strong correlation to injuries in your organizations?  Are there other leading indicators that you are using and feel are very good indicators of potential injuries?  – Tom Doyle, National Renewable Energy Lab

Community Responses

Jim Ruttinger, Health, Safety & Security Manager, The Lubrizol Corporation​
Comments in italics are from the Wickliffe, Ohio Lubrizol facility.
Management commitment
– Completion percentage of routine workspace walk arounds and activity observations
– Number of management sponsored safety program evaluations
We track # of incidents by type (e.g. near miss, minor first aid, equipment damage, unsafe driving) and by behavior (Line of Fire, Eyes on Path, Mind on Task).  We also track % closure of all incidents, targeting 80% monthly.

2.  Employee involvement
– Safety training timeliness and percentage completion
– Number of identified opportunities for improvement and reported near misses
Our employees are involved in a number of ways and we let the different departments set safety goals.  For example, employees are involved and must complete a full EHS&S inspection of the 12 areas of the plant every three months.  Many departments also set goals of conducting a set number of job safety observations (JSOs) per month.  Most of the departments set goals of reviewing a set number of job safety analyses (JSAs) and SOPs per month.

Continuous improvement
– Completion timeliness for corrective and preventative action
To continually improve, we track number of ergonomic assessments/improvements made each month.    Some of the laboratories conduct a set number of cross lab inspections per month.  We track the number of training drills, number of training classes taken, and number of computer based training (CBTs) taken.  We also track number of small spills as well as other environmental metrics, always looking to improve performance over past years.

Are these leading indicators that your organization uses to monitor potential causes of accidents?  We look at our incidents reported to see if trends develop and make adjustments as necessary, e.g. develop training, make equipment repairs, modify PPE requirements.  Do you find these safety metrics have strong correlation to injuries in your organizations? I believe communication of the incidents and metrics goes a long way towards raising safety awareness. Are there other leading indicators that you are using and feel are very good indicators of potential injuries?

We have set up an Excel spreadsheet “dashboard” with all of our leading and lagging indicators displayed monthly with targets and past years’ performance to compare and target continuous improvements.  This “dashboard” is communicated monthly at a safety review with all department managers and at monthly safety meetings with employees throughout the site.  We also have developed a very user friendly electronic incident reporting system that has been well adopted by all employees, as well as a no blame culture that has employees willing to input all types of incidents.  Our management is very supportive on making EHS&S improvements and the employees see that corrective actions are made.  Last year we worked with all departments in developing and training all employees on Hazard Recognition (specific to the department they work in) and believe this training is paying dividends with improved safety performance.  Overall we think our increased focus on hazard recognition, reporting, communication and corrective action and follow-up has made a step-change improvement in our safety performance.

Jack Wysoczanski, Corporate Director of EHS, Crown Holdings​
Crown applies both leading and lagging safety metrics in its Safety Index.  The Safety Index includes four major areas, three leading safety metrics (Risk Assessment & Monitoring, Behavioral Management, and Employee Engagement) and one lagging safety metric (Injury Measurement).

The Risk Assessment & Monitoring section includes elements such as Safety Audit scores, the number of completed JHAs (Job Hazard Analyses), and the number of Best Safety Practices submitted.  The Behavioral Management section involves elements such as leadership participation in our Safety Observation Program and the quality of Safety Observations.  The Employee Engagement section includes elements such as site safety activities, employee participation in the Site Safety Committee, safety training, pre-shift safety talks, employee involvement in injury investigations, and employee reporting of safety hazards.  The Injury Measurement section includes both a leading safety metric (Near-Miss Investigations) and a lagging safety metric (TRR or Total Recordable Rates) for injuries.

David Stafford, COO, Michelin Americas Research Company
We have both leading and tracking indicators for safety.

Leading
– participation rate amongst all employees in monthly proactive safety activities (observations, walkarounds, …)
– number of operational posts that have completed safety analysis dossiers and have improvement plans

Tracking
– OSHA rate
– Lost time injury rate
– Lost time hours rate

We also have an approach for ergonmics that mirrors a bit the safety topic as well.

James Junwu, Bekaert
In Bekaert, we view the following as the most important factors:
1.       Management commitment;
2.       Employee involvement;
3.       Management and control risk;
4.       Training and communication.

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