In today’s safety arena, metrics still rage on. I believe in metrics; everything should be DEFINED and QUANTIFIED in safety, and “performance metrics” are no different. Advanced SMSs utilize “leading indicators” rather than “lagging indicators” such as injury rates, WC $s, etc. This is a significant advancement in safety – measuring the activities (and their quality) that drive safety performance. But in today’s workplace, even leading indicator metrics can become a “numbers game”. Management and workers can figure out how to manipulate the “leading indicators” so that goals are met/exceeded while risk runs rampant.
As we have discussed many times, our SMS must be built upon the PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT model, and the CHECK element plays a significant role in ensuring that our leading indicators are not being manipulated. A solid CHECK function will validate the data we receive from our activities and leading indicators. Without it, and with a lot of pressure from management to “hit the leading indicators numbers,” safety activities can be “pencil-whipped” to achieve those goals. And this manipulation can lead to management believing risks are under control.
Take our Permit to Work (PTW) process; it plays a major role in our administrative controls within the SMS. Thus we should be verifying/validating its effectiveness to control risks. We do this by…
