The LinkedIn groups are at it again and again I will defend their latest outrage. This time it is “safety metrics”. So let’s recap; so far they have attacked the safety management system, root cause analysis, and risk matrices, and now we move to safety metrics. And like the times before, their rhetoric is way over the top, using terms like “evil” and comparing safety metrics to the communist leader Stalin. And just like the other safety tools, safety metrics are NOT the problem, and they are certainly NOT evil. Safety metrics play a critical role in a functioning safety management system; the KEY to these metrics is WHAT IS BEING MEASURED.
I replied to one of my LinkedIn contacts with the following defense of safety metrics:
Take this concept to the finance department and let’s see how much it’s embraced. But remember, a business does not simply count the number of bounced checks they issue. They actually have leading indicator metrics to tell them if they can write the checks. The problem is not measuring safety – the problem is too many only measure their “bounced checks” and not the actual safety process. Another way to look at this is to flip this concept on its head.
