In assessing safety performance, the really significant thing is what is measured. For decades, lagging indicators like the Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate and Total Recordable Incident Frequency Rate have ruled dashboards and dominated boardroom discussions. But these numbers—while certainly easy to calculate—offer a pretty restricted view of what’s going on in a workplace.
Taking a comprehensive view of safety metrics means looking beyond the incidents that cause time off work. It prompts us to think much more deeply and much more widely about safety.
Today's reporting frameworks are on the verge of making a fundamental change; they are starting to ask better questions. Why is this a big deal? If a teacher my day job as a reporting framework, I'd like to think I teach in a way that promotes better understanding. I hope I don't just give students answers but rather help them figure out the right questions to ask. This is what today's reporting frameworks should strive to do.
Is action being taken on safety observations?
Are there routine discussions between supervisors and staff about risk?
Are employees telling about small dangers, or is there a hush-hush type atmosphere? (Could be one or the other, or both.)
When we incorporate leading indicators—those proactive measures like safety participation, training completion, inspection results, and safety interactions—we begin to understand not just if people are getting hurt but why they’re getting hurt and, more important, what’s being done to prevent it.
A few leading-edge companies are even mixing Work Health and Safety (WHS) data with Human Resources (HR) metrics to unearth psychososial risks—like inadequate team dynamics or excessive amounts of work. This is a clear indicator that safety is evolving. No longer are employers only required to equate program success with a very basic set of metrics.
The result? A healthier, safer workplace—a workplace where learning is valued and compliance isn’t just a dirty word. (Well, sometimes it is.)
The Shift from Lagging to Leading Indicators
The reverse way safety has been tracked in business for years is by counting incidents—after they happen—and using those to judge performance. Lagging indicators like lost time incidents and medical treatment cases do have some value, but they are inherently reactive.
A leading indicator approach flips this model upside down. It focuses on behaviors, conditions, and systems that can predict and prevent harm before it happens.
Picture two places of work:
Site A had no injuries in the last quarter—but also no hazard reports, no safety discussions, and employees who are reticent to voice concerns.
Site B recorded a handful of small incidents but also logged 40 near-miss reports. It conducted regular safety audits and implemented corrective actions. Overall, Site B was quite proactive with safety, as indicated by its substantial (for a site of its size) near-miss reporting and decent (if not somewhat basic) safety audit routine. In fact, many of the Site B near misses had action items attached to them, which should make nearby employees much safer.
Which site is actually safer?
A leading indicator is not a way of dressing up disappointing results so that they look better. It is a way of getting up and looking ahead to see what is coming down the pike and, with that foreknowledge, making some sort of adjustment so that nasty surprise isn't, well, a surprise.
Good leading indicators are the following:
The pre-start meetings' frequency and quality
Proportion of reported risks that are resolved within the specified time frame.
Engagement of workers in safety initiatives.
Visibility of management and walk-throughs of the site. Management visibility and site walk-throughs. Too often, managers are behind their closed doors and unreachable. But it's crucial for managers to be visible to their employees. Sightlines are the first step in good design, whether for a building or a workplace. It means that employees can see their managers, and vice versa.
Training uptake and knowledge retention.
This proactive inquisitiveness—wanting to know "Where could the next disaster potentially arise?"—is what leads to the construction of safer, more resilient organizations.
📱 The Role of Technology in Advancing Safety Metrics
Today's workplaces—especially those in high-risk sectors such as construction, manufacturing, and logistics—are finding more than just efficiency gains through technological advancements. For many, tech is now an essential element of health and safety, serving as a lifeline for workers across the spectrum. How is technology supporting H&S in today's workplaces? Here are five ways:.
Wearable technology, including fatigue-detection headbands, GPS-enabled devices for lone workers, and smart boots that monitor posture and impact, will allow safety teams to gather data in real time. This unprecedented level of visibility into what’s happening on the job site and within its workforce can translate into life-saving interventions. If a worker exceeds fatigue thresholds, enters a restricted zone, or is in any number of hazardous conditions, the necessary personnel can be alerted to that situation immediately. If the visibility offered by wearables is impressive, the way they might be used in conjunction with other technologies is even more so.
At the same time, AI and machine learning are changing how incident data is interpreted and practically understood. They can help detect patterns and trends that run across thousands of reports. For example, they might disclose that certain times of day are always dangerous (or largely so) or that near misses tend to involve the same workgroup. Using these kinds of insights, organisations can implement more effective interventions—targeted, rather than wide-ranging or solution-in-a-can interventions.
The tools do something much more significant than simply replace one type of indicator with another. They support a shift from using indicators that show past performance (like injury counts) to using indicators that predict performance and show how safe we are right now (like the near miss in the example above, and its investigation). By using the tools to focus on these kinds of indicators, we start to move the safety game from one of reaction to one of prevention.
Modern safety management is defined by the shift from looking back at what has happened (hindsight) to estimating what might happen (foresight).
🏗️ Building a Culture of Safety
However, even the most effective tools won't work without a supportive culture.
Moving away from antiquated metrics such as the LTIFR to better, more meaningful, multi-faceted safety performance indicators is a mindset change, not just a software or dashboard change.
An authentic safety culture is one where the reporting of hazards is not merely tolerated but actively encouraged, where it is safe to speak up. It is a culture where leadership is just as comfortable asking, "What might go wrong?" as they are asking, "What did go wrong?" And in this genuine safety culture, every individual in the organization knows that their voice is important, and that it matters, as they say, in every layer of the organization.
This cultural evolution doesn’t occur in an instant. It begins with leading figures who not only enact the desired culture but also invest in the sorts of training that make sense for the many ways different employees might need to engage with the culture day-to-day. Then, it moves down through the ranks, with every leader at every level taking on the responsibility to walk the talk, and to help those reporting to them understand how to engage with and embody the culture in the ways that make sense for their role.
New metrics tend to uncover cultural deficiencies. For instance, if new leading indicators are showing a low rate of near-miss reporting, that could indicate a lack of understanding, fear, or doggone apathy from your workforce—not a safe and healthy safety culture. That's why it's so important that culture and metrics evolve together.
In the end, it all funnels down to culture, which is the medium in which all safety initiatives thrive. Remove it, and even the most sophisticated systems will fail to take hold.