Measuring Safety

Performance
 One way to improve the effectiveness of your safety process is to
change the way it is measured.
 Measurement is an important part of any management process and
forms the basis for continuous improvement.
 Finding the perfect measure of safety is a difficult task
 What you want is to measure both the bottom-line results of safety as
well as how well your facility is doing at preventing accidents and
incidents. To do this, you will use a combination of lagging and leading
indicators of safety performance.
Lagging indicators of safety performance

 Lagging indicators measure a company’s incidents in the form of past

accident statistics.

 Examples include:
 Injury frequency and severity
 Reportable injuries
 Lost workdays
 Worker’s compensation costs
Lagging indicators are the traditional safety metrics
 The drawbacks of lagging indicators.
 The major drawback to only using lagging indicators of safety
performance is that they tell you how many people got hurt and how
badly, but not how well your company is doing at preventing incidents
and accidents.
 The reactionary nature of lagging indicators makes them a poor gauge
of prevention. For example, when managers see a low injury rate, they
may become complacent and put safety on the bottom of their to-do
list, when in fact, there are numerous risk factors present in the
workplace that will contribute to future injuries.
 Leading indicators of safety performance
 A leading indicator is a measure preceding or indicating a future event used to
drive and measure activities carried out to prevent and control injury.
 Examples include:
 Safety Training
 Behavioral Audits
 Safety Audits
 Toolbox Talks
 Near Misses
 Safety improvements/Initiatives
 Participation in Safety Committee
 Equipment/Machinery Maintenance
 Hazard Identification & Risk Assessments
Leading indicators are focused on future safety performance and continuous
improvement. These measures are proactive in nature and report what employees are
doing on a regular basis to prevent injuries.
 Lagging indicators measure failure; leading indicators measure
performance,
Commonly used accident Rates

• Lagging indicators
• Commonly used accident Rates are
• 1. Frequency Rate
• 2. Severity Rate
• 3. Incidence Rate
• Man-Hours Worked - The total number of employee-hours
worked by all employees working in the industrial premises.
It includes managerial, supervisory, professional, technical,
clerical and other workers including contractors’ labour.
• Also include overtime worked if any
In a Visaka Industries 2000 and 1000 Contractor workers working in morning shift
in night shift and 300 Visaka employees are working. Number of working days are
200 per year. Average working hours for any employee are 8 hours per day. The
following are the injury statistics of the company

Year No of Lost time No of No of No of

injuries reportable First Near
lost time aid misses
injuries cases
2013 18 15 300 4
2014 9 13 40 3
2015 12 12 26 3

Calculate the frequency rate for 2013,2014 1nd 2015

For the year 2013

F(A) = (18)*1000000/(2000+1000+300)*200*8

F(B) = 15*1000000/(2000+1000+300)*200*8
In a Visaka Industries 3000 in morning shift and 1000 workers in night
shift , Contractor workers are working and 300 Visaka employees are
working. Number of working days are 300 per year. Average working
hours for any employee are 8 hours per day. The following are the injury
statistics of the company

Year No of Non No of No of No of
reportable Lost reportable First reportable
time injuries lost time aid Accidents
injuries cases
2013 18 13 300 14
2014 9 14 40 3
2015 12 20 26 3

Calculate the frequency rate of the 1. reportable Accident for 2013,

2014,
In a Visaka Industries 2000 workers are working during morning shift and
1000 during night shift. Number of working days are 300. Average
working hours for any employee are 8 hours per day. The following are
the injury statistics of the company
Year No of Lost time No of reportable No of First aid cases
injuries lost time injuries

2013 50 18 300
2014 32 9 40
2015 21 12 26

Calculate the Incident rate of the 1. reportable lost time injury 2.Total
lost time injury.

Incidence rate for lost time injury (LTI) = (50)*1000/(2000+1000+300)

Incidence rate for reportable injury = (18)*1000/(2000+1000+300)