5 Safety Metrics You Need To Start Tracking

Increasingly, more and more organizations are digging into their data to uncover new insights and make better-informed decisions. But building out your EHS reporting process from the ground-up can seem daunting. With so much data available, where do you start? Which safety KPI is most important to track? Consider this post a primer on the five safety metrics your EHS department should be reporting on each month.

Safety Performance Metrics

Safety metrics are a fundamental part of EHS reporting, as they offer insight into the effectiveness of your safety program and activities. Think of these measurements as the guiding light to help you identify gaps and deficiencies in your safety program, to improve your initiatives and processes going forward. Here are 5 key safety metrics to consider:

1. Incidents and Near Misses

Historically, many organizations have focused the majority of their EHS reporting on lagging indicators, like incidents and near misses – which is a great starting point. Measuring these kinds of lagging indicators tell us how we’ve been performing and provide a solid foundation to build upon. Once you’ve established your baseline performance level, you can then consider putting controls in place to improve these key safety metrics.

2. Inspections and Audits Completed

While lagging indicators like incidents and near misses can show us how we’ve performed in the past, they can’t provide us with much insight into future risks we need to be aware of. To build a world-class EHS program, it’s essential to shift your reporting focus to leading indicators – starting with the number of inspections and audits completed on your job sites on a monthly basis. To collect good quality data, make sure all of your employees are aware from day one of potentially unsafe conditions and conduct formal training sessions that cover how to complete inspections and hazard assessments.

Related: How to Convert Safety Data to Actionable Insights

3. Corrective Actions

As EHS pros, we’re all striving for safety excellence, and assigning corrective actions is an important part of the continuous improvement process. On a monthly basis, you should be assessing the number of corrective actions your workforce is completing. It’s also critical to monitor the number of corrective actions that are being assigned but not completed. Use this data to instill a sense of urgency in your workers – make sure everyone is on the same page and working together to get all corrective actions closed out as quickly and as safely as possible.

4. Employee Training

Managing employee training records can seem tedious, but it’s one of the most essential safety metrics to track each month. Keeping on top of which members of your team have valid training certificates (and when those certificates are going to expire) shows you’re taking a proactive approach to workplace safety and can help you stay compliant.

Related: 5 Steps to a Strong Safety Culture

5. Worker Participation

To prevent incidents and reduce risk, every member of your organization needs to be involved and actively participating in your EHS program. This means every employee at every level needs to know what the company’s safety metric goals are so they can contribute appropriately. When measuring worker participation, a few key safety metrics to track each month include:

– Number of safety meetings and toolbox talks attended
– Number of training courses completed
– Number of inspections conducted and submitted
– Number of closed out corrective actions

Next Steps

Now that you have a better idea of the safety metrics you should be tracking each month, read the Ultimate Guide To Preventative Safety Analytics And Reporting whitepaper to learn how you can build high-performance safety systems, make better-informed decisions, and improve safety outcomes.