Measuring Performance

Measurement is an important step in any management process and is the basis of continual improvement - health and safety management is no different. If there is no reliable information to inform managers how well their health and safety risks are controlled, how can we consider it to be well managed?

The HSE, in their publication HSG 65 “Managing for health and safety”, makes it clear that measurement is an accepted part of the 'plan-do-check-act' management process. Measuring performance is as much part of a health and safety management system as financial, production, or service delivery management.

Health and safety differs from many areas measured by managers because success results in the absence of an outcome (injuries or ill health) rather than a presence. In addition, a low injury or ill-health rate, even over a period of years, is no guarantee that risks are being controlled and will not lead to injuries or ill health in the future.

Historical records can be used as indicators; however, they can be a deceptive indicator of safety performance; an absence of accidents does not mean that an environment is safe. This type of data, known as a LAG indicator, tells us something after the event and is known as a REACTIVE indicator. These are important performance measures, but they don't allow us to influence our safety environment. Given the potential consequences of events, it is also helpful to look at LEAD Indicators. These point to issues that could give rise to an event and are PROACTIVE Indicators.

Accident details and the trends that come from our recording processes are important as they can allow us to identify developing trends and so permit some preventative actions to be taken to prevent potential issues occurring. However, "lead indicators" are a better measure of the manner in which health and safety is being managed. Lead indicators are generally thought to be comprised of 2 types of metrics

• Metrics that tell us about a level of activity that needs to happen as part of our safety organisation, and 
• Metrics that tell us about the performance of activity within our safety organisation.

From a practical point of view, examples of what a LEAD indicator might be include: 

• How many Risk Assessments have been proactively monitored in a given period against a monitoring regime? 
• How many of the control measures defined in a Risk Assessment are in operation and being complied with?

It is important to develop and use metrics that are easy to collect and are meaningful to those expected to use and understand them. Indicators could come from the following areas of work:

Risk Assessments: If you have a risk assessment which details 20 control measures and only 10 of these are in place, then as a simple measure, you are only achieving a 50% performance against your risk assessment.

Employee training: Training can produce several Lead Indicators such as, what % of your training requirements are up-to-date or if you are testing employees knowledge, what is % competency

Checklists: % performance of desired outcomes - for example, you could score your safety checklist based on the number of breaches or problems that need rectifying. If a checklist score fails 10 out of 100 items covered, they scored 90%. Maybe a sign was missing, an induction hadn't been carried out, or someone didn't have the right PPE on. If the next time that site is checklist scored, they score 95%, you have measured an improvement.

Other areas of work could be used and managers/supervisors are encouraged to explore options that suit their area of work. MA32 Performance Measuring will provide more definitive support to managers on this matter.