KATE W. PILE
is executive director of the Pulp & Paper Safety Association.

Safety performance metrics: Part I of III

The measurement of safety performance is a hot topic in most companies today. What do you measure? How do you set goals? Who maintains the records? Safety is a process like any other in your facility, and if you don't measure the right things (data and activities), you won't know if your performance is acceptable and if it benefits your company.

It's likely that you are already keeping track of some safety performance data. Incident Rate, Severity Rate, and Incident Cost are traditional safety measures, often referred to as "Trailing Indicators". While they are important, they don't tell you where you have gone wrong. To do that, you need to measure your incident prevention activities, or "Leading Indicators". Just so we all start out in the same place, I'm going to briefly review each of the three traditional measures first.

TRADITIONAL SAFETY MEASURES. Most, if not all, companies measure their Total Incident Rate (TIR). This rate compares the number of OSHA recordable work-related injuries and illnesses to the total hours worked by all employees; it can be roughly translated as the number of incidents per 100 employees per year. TIR does not give any indication of the seriousness of the incidents: an amputation is given the same weight as a laceration requiring one stitch.

To get a handle on the gravity of your incidents, calculate the Severity Rate (SR). This can be translated as the number of days away from normal work activity per 100 workers during one year. However, some of the definitions are open to interpretation and the data can be manipulated a bit. (No, I'm not implying falsification. Yes, I know this is a controversial topic. Not all companies and safety professionals agree on the definitions. This can also be an issue with TIR.) If you are making a comparison between your company and another (or even between locations within your company), be certain you know if the sites are counting days of restricted duty or only days away from work.

Incident Cost (IC) is an excellent measurement for year-to-year comparisons, although it loses effectiveness when comparing one region of the country to another due to differences in health care costs. This is simply calculated by dividing medical costs by the total employee work hours. It's usually reported as 'cost per work hour'. Workers' Comp premiums are not used as part of the calculation; neither are the associated or hidden costs.

While it's a good idea to calculate the hidden costs at least once, it's a better idea to review them annually. The Hidden Costs (Indirect Costs) include the time it takes a supervisor to investigate and write up an incident, the wages for the employee temporarily performing the injured employee's job, the training of the new employee (their time and the trainer's time), the benefits that continue to be paid to an employee while they are out, on-site medical supplies like bandages, production lost due to the incident, etc. The list goes on and on. These indirect costs can range from four times to 20 times the medical bills. Exploring hidden costs is a great project for a safety committee or intern at the beginning of the new year. Once you have calculated this number, then determine how much product your company must sell, at your current profit margin, to cover the cost of injuries during a year.

While TIR, SR, and IC are good measurements, they should be considered the minimum necessary to monitor your safety process. They measure performance, but how do we measure the incident prevention process? In Part II of this column series, we'll go over safety performance metrics in more detail, including a sample plan for measuring the safety activities of supervisors. For more information now, go to the web site of the Pulp & Paper Safety Association where you can also participate in a Safety Metrics survey.

Accountability must be built into the system with goals tied into performance reviews. Safety professionals without clerical support may need to find additional resources if the measurement system is complex. Alternatives include the use of safety committee members to assist with the collection and tabulation of measurement data.