Page 28 - Occupational Health & Safety, September 2018

PUTTING SAFETY DATA TO USE
Five Key Safety Metrics to Improve Performance
Pay attention to in-depth incident metrics, make adjustments to your safety prac- tices accordingly, and you won’t have to worry as much about your TCIR rate.
BY CLARE EPSTEIN
Each year, with the advancement of data col- lection methods and tools, more and more safety data are available to safety profession- als. But when you’re flooded with informa-
tion, it can be challenging to decide what metrics are worth tracking.
To take some of the guesswork out of evaluating your organization’s EHS performance, here are five safety data sets that deserve a closer look.
Incidents
Any seasoned EHS professional knows the impor- tance of tracking your organization’s Total Case Inci- dent Rate (TCIR). If you’re new to the safety game, or just need a refresher, the TCIR is a benchmark that you can use to compare your company’s safety perfor- mance against other organizations.
To calculate this metric, start by multiplying the number of OSHA recordable injuries and illnesses occurring at your company throughout the year by 200,000. Why 200,000? This number represents the number of hours that 100 employees would work per week during a calendar year. By using this constant, you can compare incident rates on a common scale, regardless of the size of your workplace.
After you’ve multiplied your number of record- able incidents by 200,000, the final step is to divide this number by the total number of hours that your employees have worked. Then, you’ve got your TCIR.
Each year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes TCIR data broken down by industry and re- gion, so you can take your TCIR and see how it stacks up against those of your competitors.
While it’s important to keep an eye on these rates, keep in mind that this should not be the only incident metric that you’re monitoring. After all, your TCIR only gives an idea of incident frequency compared to
hours worked. They don’t give any possible reasons as to why the incidents are occurring!
That’s why you’ll also want to pay attention to met- rics that shed light on why incidents occur. Determin- ing the root causes of incidents, the most common times that they occur, as well as the average time that involved employees have worked at your company can paint a more detailed picture of the factors that contribute to the occurrence of injuries and illnesses.
You can start to answer questions such as:
■ Is there a shift or location that is most prone to incidents?
■ What are the most often occurring types of employee injuries?
■ Does an employee’s time with the company have an impact on their likelihood to become in- volved in incidents?
These in-depth incident metrics can set you on the path to lowering your total number of workplace injuries and illnesses. Pay attention to these metrics, make adjustments to your safety practices accord- ingly, and you won’t have to worry as much about your TCIR rate.
Inspections
While it’s important to pull as much insight as you can from incident metrics, examining only injury and ill- ness data leaves you with just a small snapshot of your safety performance.
Inspections are your first line of defense in proac- tively preventing workplace injuries and illnesses. If employees aren’t regularly checking their surround- ings and equipment for defects or potential issues, you’re practically begging for incidents to occur.
24 Occupational Health & Safety | SEPTEMBER 2018
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INDUSTRYSAFE, INC.
INDUSTRYSAFE, INC.