Source: NSC

The Campbell Institute – the National Safety Council center of excellence for environmental, health and safety management – released a white paper entitled Elevating EHS Leading Indicators: From defining to designing to provide employers with a road map for designing, implementing and evaluating leading indicators. The white paper, the third in a series around leading indicators, features real world experiences of eight Institute members and partners as they developed and implemented leading indicators at their organizations. 

“Measurement and evaluation are critical to achieving safety excellence,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, president and CEO of the National Safety Council. “Campbell Institute members have world class safety systems, so their insight regarding leading indicators is invaluable as we endeavor to make workplaces everywhere safer.”

Leading indicators are designed to give advance warning of potential problems so corrective actions can be taken. They help reveal weaknesses in an organization’s procedures or employee behavior before these issues can cause real harm.

Institute members and partners recommend other organizations:

• Look at what is already being measured and determine whether it could  be a leading indicator
• Just get started; do not spend too much time deliberating which leading indicators to track
• Make sure indicators communicate meaningful and actionable information
• Obtain leadership support
• Integrate leading indicators into the overall safety management system

Organizations contributing case studies to the paper include NASA and Owens Corning.

To learn more about the Campbell Institute, visit thecampbellinstitute.org.