Select leading indicators to help measure safety

Just as a pre-trip inspection can help prevent a vehicle from breaking down during a road trip, the practice of planning ahead instead of waiting for something bad to happen can be applied to workplace safety – in the form of leading indicators.

Leading indicators

Leading indicators are pre-incident measurements, as opposed to lagging indicators, which are measurements collected after an incident occurs. For example, a flat tire is a lagging indicator because the blowout already has occurred, but an inspection that notes the poor quality of the tire and prevents a blowout from taking place is a leading indicator.

Auto maintenance is a simplified example. Jonathan Thomas, director of safety management solutions for the National Safety Council, said researchers disagree on what constitutes a leading indicator. However, Thomas said one defining concept of leading indicators is that they are measurements of safety events or behaviors that precede incidents and have a predictive quality.

Measuring the possibility of something unsafe occurring – and taking steps to prevent it – can help safety professionals keep workers safe on the job. Several experts give us examples of leading indicators, including why they may work well and how they could be used to improve workplace safety. Six examples are below.
Please note: Employers must choose specific leading indicators that work best for them. This list is not intended to be all-encompassing, nor is it meant to imply that leading indicators function independently of one another.

1. Training

Training workers on how to behave in a safe manner and use equipment correctly can be considered a good leading indicator because it correlates to a facility’s safety. The higher number of people that are trained, the more safe the work environment is going to be.

Training hours was the leading indicator with the strongest correlation to lagging indicators. The more hours of training that were conducted, the fewer safety incidents that occurred.

Training as a leading indicator involves more than simply signing employees up for a class. Track the training to ensure it is being conducted and everyone has attended. The end result will be improved workplace safety as people become more aware of hazards.

But training as a leading indicator does not end with tallying the number of training sessions and tracking attendance. The training has to be effective

2. Assessments and audits

Employee training is followed up with surveys to test employee knowledge and retention of the information. Another way to gauge the effectiveness of training and an organization’s overall safety culture is using job observations, assessments or audits.

An assessment or audit entails a safety professional walking the jobsite and gathering data. This could include interviews with employees as well as observations.

The focus of an audit is to try to find things that could lead to losses. Observations can help identify hidden risks in more ways than one. Any observation – indeed, any leading indicator – needs to tie into an organization’s goals. For a construction company, a goal may be 100 percent use of fall protection. If job observations find less than 100 percent compliance, the employer will know something needs to change.

Experts define leading indicators, characteristics
Although leading indicators have been accepted as a legitimate measure of environmental, health and safety performance, a basic definition of the measure is still being debated.

As part of an effort to resolve disagreements on the meaning of leading indicators, the Campbell Institute at the National Safety Council established a panel of industry experts to identify a single definition, explore the relationship between leading and lagging indicators, and identify desirable leading indicator characteristics.

According to a white paper published on the panel discussion, the experts agreed to define leading indicators as:
“Proactive, preventative, and predictive measures that monitor and provide current information about the effective performance, activities, and processes of an EHS management system that can drive the identification and elimination or control of risks in the workplace that can cause incidents and injuries.”

The panel also identified eight valuable qualities leading indicators should have:
1. Actionable
2. Achievable
3. Meaningful
4. Transparent
5. Easy to communicate
6. Valid
7. Useful
8. Timely

Reference: S&H