Safety Performance Programs

Safety professionals must be able to determine if their programs are making a positive impact upon the
organization, confirm whether they are meeting their safety goals, and communicate the status of the safety
performance to the organization. In order to verify the improvement of workplace safety, safety professionals rely
upon measures they believe to be indicative of performance. There can be wide differences in how these measures
work, how they tie into an organization’as safety activities, and how they are used to institute change in the
organization. Historically, safety practitioners have often chosen ineffective, inadequate, and invalid measures
(Petersen 1998). Some of these more traditional, and less exact, forms of safety performance measures include
the number of lost workdays, the number of injuries, and financial losses. To avoid the shortcomings of these overly
simplistic measures, safety metrics must be based upon sound business practices and statistical procedures, and
should be used to implement a process of measuring safety programs.

The steps involved in a safety metrics program include program development, benchmarking, auditing, measuring
performance, evaluating outcomes, and managing the program based upon the outcomes. A successful safety
metrics program requires accountability, a management structure, and a data collection system. The basic method
of the program is to systematically gather data and analyze it to determine whether the organization’s performance
goals have been met. Analysis may include comparisons to established benchmarks, goals, or other collected data.

The final key component of any safety performance program is the follow-up. Follow-up should be based on the
trends and differences identified in the analysis. It can include developing new policies and procedures, modifying
existing policies and procedures, or changing the physical characteristics of the workplace or job task.

Definition of Safety Metrics

The term “safety metrics” refers to the body of knowledge used to quantify and measure safety performance. A
safety metric is the measurement of key processes in order to provide an objective basis for determining process
performance (Daugherty 1999, 144).

On the corporate level, metrics identifies divisions or facilities that need to improve within the safety process. At the
plant level, metrics identifies departments and work areas that need to improve. An underlying premise of safety
metrics is continual performance improvement. The recent Total Quality Management (TQM) movement and its
emphasis on continual improvement has increased the popularity and ease of implementing formalized safety
metrics programs, especially since performance measures are generally recognized as an important element of all
TQM programs (TRADE 1995, 1-3). By applying the same underlying principles to safety metrics, and through
focusing on specifics and sustained employee involvement, safety professionals can use safety metrics as a
valuable tool for improving overall safety performance.

Safety Performance Measures

While safety metrics is used to quantify or describe the organization’s safety performance, performance
measurement consists of determining what to measure, identifying data collection methods, and collecting the data.
Safety performance measures are indicators that focus on the differences between actual safety performance and
what has been defined as acceptable. Performance measures are tools employees and management can use to
continually guide and calculate their own improvement by regularly measuring individual, team, and site-wide
performance. The performance measures identify problem areas, provide some measure of accountability for
employees, and corroborate the fact that the organization’s goals are (or are not) being met. A performance
measure can be used to motivate managers and employees, to monitor important activities, and to help evaluate
whether those activities need revision to achieve organizational strategies. An important aspect of any safety
metrics program is the link between performance measures and the desired outcome. Performance measures
assess the progress toward achieving a desired outcome, usually through explaining the causal relationships that
exist between program activities and the outcome.

The ability to accurately measure safety performance depends heavily upon the process that is followed to quantify
that performance. The quantification of performance should be done through the following systematic approach:

1. Define the standardized units of measure.

2. Develop instruments and methods that are capable of measuring in terms of the units of measure.

3. Use the instruments or methods to measure performance.

Safety Metrics Techniques

The safety professional has many tools and techniques available to establish a safety metrics program, collect
data, evaluate performance, and make decisions based on the findings. Many of the tools and techniques
presented in this book are commonly used in the quality management and productivity fields. Safety performance
lends itself readily to these management tools. However, it has only been over the past decade or so that the safety
profession has begun to use them with any regularity.

Data analysis tools and statistics are essential in the collection and evaluation of quantitative performance
measures. While control charts have been used to graphically display and evaluate loss and accident information
for years, more sophisticated control chart techniques and Pareto diagrams have been used only to a limited extent
in the field. Yet by assessing safety data through descriptive and inferential statistics, a degree of statistical
significance, and thus a higher level of certainty, can be added to the results. In addition, cause and effect analyses
can be beneficial in identifying and evaluating the effectiveness of control measures. Through the use of these
techniques, the safety professional can direct the organization’s safety resources toward those areas that will have
an impact on the organization’s overall safety performance.

Current Trends in Safety Metrics

For years, measuring safety performance has meant solely counting the number of people hurt or the number of
days away from work. This translates to after-the-fact hazard detection, which (like outdated quality programs
based on inspecting defects at the end of a process) does not identify organizational errors—the true causes of
accidents. “Safety excellence requires daily proactive intervention by line managers and supervisors. This proactive
intervention is usually a missing link that can only be corrected when the system holds managers, supervisors, and
executives accountable” (Petersen 2000, 19).

Today’s safety professional has moved beyond the standard measurement of safety performance in terms of the
number of accidents or injuries and recordable injury and illness rates. More sophisticated techniques that involve
safety performance measurement systems, ongoing tracking of results, and continual improvement processes have
replaced the early measurements. While today’s safety metrics still include accident and illness performance, they
also encompass behavior-based safety, safety program implementation performance, and insurance costs and
losses.

Safety performance is now measured with the same tools and techniques common to quality measures of other
aspects in the organization. Control charts, run charts, and Pareto diagrams can be used to track and monitor
safety performance, establish trends, and evaluate program performance against accepted tolerances.

Benchmarking against other high performers has become a trend in industry not only for production goals but also
for safety. In today’s global economy, safety performance and its measurement have also become global. The
International Organization for Standardization’s ISO standards have become an integral part of many organizations’
safety management philosophy. ISO 9000 and 14000 standards are global frameworks for many industries’ quality
and environmental performance standards. These standards have become the means by which organizations have
incorporated safety into production and management strategies.

In Europe, the European Community has adopted a number of performance standards that serve as voluntary
quality and environmental standards for its members. The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)
promotes and rewards organizations that adhere to their excellence model for quality. Accompanying these
standards are safety and environmental performance measures that directly impact the overall quality of the
product. These standards have also laid the foundation for documentation of performance standards and continual
improvement process.

Summary
The safety professional has long been faced with trying to answer the question “How are we performing with regard
to safety?” Tools and techniques that are often used in fields as diverse as business management, insurance, and
psychology can also be applied to industrial safety. This book provides a framework for developing a management
program designed to apply these techniques and identify activities that can be used to continually improve safety
performance. Information contained in this book will provide the safety professional with:

1. Organizational frameworks that can be used to establish a safety performance improvement program

2. Benchmarking and safety goal-setting strategies

3. Different types of safety metrics that can be used to measure safety performance

4. Techniques for data collection, analysis, and presentation of performance measures.