Chapter 2
Choosing Core Performance Indicators
The base set of reporting metrics reported to senior management is commonly drawn from the measures listed below. The exact combination will be influenced by local regulation, company custom and industry norms.
Note: If a safety specialist believes there is good reason to change the way a core metric is measured and reported to the board, they should weigh the justification against the fact that in rebasing or replacing a rate, a time series showing the organization’s performance over years will be broken.
Life-Changing Injuries
Major injuries involving permanent damage to a limb, long-term health problems or reduced life expectancy. These, like fatalities, should be rare enough to report (and discuss) as individual instances rather than expressed as a rate.
You can learn more about serious injuries and fatalities (sifs) here.
Reportable Injuries
Accidents and incidents notified to authorities as required under national regulations, such as the UK’s Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR), or those reported to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) in the USA.
First Aid Incidents
Injuries requiring treatment on site without causing lost work days, such as cleaning minor cuts or scratches, treating minor burns, applying ice packs.
Total Recordable Injury Rate (trir)
A measure used by US and US-owned companies and required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) based on all reportable incidents expressed per 200,000 hours worked divided by total hours worked by all employees.
Lost Time Incident Rate (ltir)
Incidents and injuries necessitating time off work expressed as a rate. The minimum period off work (commonly one day or a set number of hours) to qualify as a Lost Time Incident (LTI) and the basis of the rate (expressed per 100 employees or per 200,000 hours worked, for example) varies according to company and sectoral norm.
Occupational Ill Health Case Rate
New cases of work-related disease expressed as a rate — commonly broken down by disease type such as musculoskeletal and respiratory disorders.
Sickness Absence Rate
The rate for all causes and for individual causes such as stress and musculoskeletal disorders.
Near-Misses
The number and rate of reported incidents that did not lead to injury or ill health but had the potential to do so, ranked by potential severity.
In most cases these indicators will be stated relative to targets, often proposed by OSH practitioners and signed off by executives annually.
These data may be supplemented by broader calculations of the cost of accidents and ill health, using personal injury claims and any regulatory penalties, plus estimates of the cost of providing cover for absent employees and management time in investigations and administration.
