RIF, Recordable Injury Frequency, the worldwide standard for judging safety performance, is often talked about as inadequate, but in actuality is seldom, if ever, replaced. Why use this concept? 

• RIF is reactionary, not proactive 
• RIF doesn’t give a hint as to what you should do differently to improve safety 
• Why incent RIF performance when all it does is lead to hiding injuries and thus impede progress in resolving the recurring issues that should be addressed 
• RIF means nothing to the front line worker where the risks are lived with every day

We have all heard these arguments and more. Yet we keep slogging down this same old road expecting a different result, the classic definition of insanity.

A group of safety professionals recently met with the executive safety leadership of a Fortune 50 company that was struggling with the RIF plateau. A number of years back when their injury numbers were higher they attacked the RIF culture that existed, solved many conditional and regulatory issues and took a steep drop in RIF and its associated costs.

The leadership was all smiles as they thoughtlessly planned the next 10% RIF decrease goal with all its bonus structure implications thereto pertaining. And then they hit the RIF plateau and injury rate progress stopped for years.

No matter how hard they pushed a meaningless goal of < 0.1 RIF reduction the outdated statistic did not move. Classic safety wisdom draws to a halt at the RIF plateau.

During the weeklong retreat it was decided that the CEO and group presidents owned RIF responsibility, whereas all those below these pay grades were responsible for the upstream activities that delivered downstream results. In turn this led to a whole new initiative that will involve:

• Safety culture training
• Safety culture diagnostic
• Continuous improvement focus
• Engaging employees at all levels of the organization in safety problem solving
• Safety accountabilities for employees at all levels of the organization
• Effective interpersonal safety communication at the front line
• Personal risk assessment as a way of life for all employees on and off the job

This initiative is still in the formation and implementation process. However, for the first time in years there is viable energy working to move beyond the RIF plateau performance trap. Is it time for you and your organization to exit safety RIF insanity and do likewise?

The Doc