Safety Metrics for the Modern Safety Professional

Book excerpt: This book investigates the world of leading indicators and explores how they can be used effectively, providing 21st-century safety professionals with alternative metrics and guidance, which will enable them to make a difference in managing risk within an organization. The safety and health profession has been hindered by ineffective metrics for decades, with the primary metrics of choice being the OSHA incident rate and lost time accident rate. This narrow focus on what constitutes loss is not in line with the new concepts of managing the total risk that an organization faces. The book looks at indicators on a tactical level where they can be very effective in providing management with clear direction and "manageable" items they can utilize to elevate the safety efforts of an organization. It also explores the limitations of leading indicators at the strategic level and how they’re tied into the management merit review system to determine bonus and salary increase structures. It features measurements of areas of loss not usually considered by safety managers, suggests ways to use leading indicators, and promotes a departure from traditional "body count" thinking. This book will be of interest to safety professionals involved in risk management in the modern workplace.