Traditionally the primary safety metric is accident related. Generally, the accident report identifies what happened and the safety manager may devise a brief alert to be addressed at the morning toolbox talks, followed by a training session to be given to the workforce. Another source of safety intervention may come from jobsite safety inspection findings regarding any hazardous conditions or at-risk behaviors addressed with the individual and supervision informed. This may trigger a lunch break safety talk or a workforce training session.      

The effectiveness of traditional ways and means utilized to avoid accidents and injuries in the workplace is not highly efficacious. This is primarily due to the use of historical data, few data points, as well as little to limited relationship to operational performance data. Another shortcoming of this system is primary focus on the worker. The risk of accidents and injuries primarily resides in the operational systems which include planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. And it is influenced by the operational culture, work climate, and the leader-member exchange.    

To effectively manage, you need proficient data. Senior management understands that the measurement system influences organizational behavior. Effective measurement has to be predictive as well as prescriptive in nature if it is to provide information for managing performance. Measurement is difficult because it is not exact science. To make things even more complicated, it is difficult to foretell the impact on individual behavior, the interactions, and interrelationships between existing diverse variables, and the new ones produced by the newly created metrics. This is because people are involved, and their actions are inherently unpredictable.

Outcome, Process and Progress Metrics 

Management is about getting things done. Information is required to accomplish this. To gauge performance organizations traditionally used financial measures. These are historical and indicate outcomes, but do not provide information of what went wrong and how to improve this. This requires process metrics, which indicates what went wrong so as to determine what changes to devise so as to initiate improvement strategies.

It is also beneficial to ascertain how rapidly the change initiatives are garnering improvements. This requires progress metrics. These types of metrics allow for mid-course corrections and give management the ability to respond quickly to effectively track improvement. To manage effectively all three metrics are required. In looking at how safety is traditionally managed we primarily find outcome metrics as the only measures used. This makes implementing the proper change rather difficult. Site audits may provide a general indication of how well the improvement initiatives are working.

Safety and Business Goals Alignment

One of the organizational disconnects is around the alignment of safety outcomes with business goals. Safety personnel bemoan the fact that they do not get the support they need from senior management, nor do they get the full backing of the operational staff. Another sore point is that the workforce is not sufficiently made available nor given the time to participate in safety training.        

Another ongoing issue is the fact that project staff continually fall short in the implementation and supporting of the operational safety process. The governing Safety metrics do not tell senior managers how the safety effort correlates to their goals and objectives for the business. The implementation of an organizational scorecard approach, if applied to safety, will provide the alignment, and metrics that will resolve much of the issues and concerns that are seemingly impossible to overcome. 

Ideally, the organizations should implement the scorecard technique for both the business as well as safety. In this way, total alignment is possible. If that is not possible, then we can implement a scorecard for safety alone. Though this will not provide the complete alignment possible, it will provide for a focused strategy implementation, targeted interventions, as well as progress and process metrics which are nonexistent in the present state.

Devising a Safety Scorecard

The challenge is to apply the balanced scorecard concept, or any other scorecard to the organization’s operations regarding safety. If the organization already has a scorecard for its operations, then this could be modified to focus on the management of safety. Using the four-perspective balanced scorecard model as an example:

• The customer perspective
• The internal business perspective
• The innovation and learning perspective
• The financial perspective 

The comparable safety perspectives might be as follows: 

• The stakeholders in safe work performance: This is everyone, all levels of management as well as the workers. 
• Safety process and procedure: Everything that is done to make safety "work": programs, training, audits, inspections, employee management, risk planning, etc. 
• Innovation in safety: Technological innovation, skill, and knowledge improvement, operational alignment, etc.
• Safety performance management: Operational excellence, leadership, empowerment, performance standards, performance measurement, etc.

So how do we go about accomplishing this? First, we need to define our vision for the management of the safety function. This could be: 

• Excellence in safety outcomes                               
• An injury free workplace
• Workforce engagement & Involvement 
• Merge safety management with operations

These could start a conversation and work towards a vision for the scorecard that best fits that organization, its business objectives, culture, work climate, etc. Some may even be selected as one of the scorecards perspectives. The next step is to establish the total number of perspectives required. This could be a s little as three or as men as five or six. Too many are going to be a burden to deal with effectively. For example, assume that the vision we have for our safety effort is “an injury-free workplace.” The next step is to identify strategies, objectives, measures, and targets for each of the above perspectives. 

The organizational scorecard places vision and strategy at the center. This process establishes goals that ensure everyone within the organization will adopt behaviors and take the actions that will achieve these goals. The measure is also designed to ensure this occurs and provides an assessment of how everyone is doing in accomplishing the central vision. Senior management now has a process that effectively focuses all the efforts of the organization toward the vision and has the information with which to manage effectively.

A Holistic Approach to Safety Management

Safety excellence can only be achieved through a strategy-driven, performance-based, integrated safety management process. This requires a custom-made scorecard to holistically impact and mold safety performance. Consequently, the safety process will become woven into the very fabric of the organizations. The framework for stellar safety performance is made up of three cornerstones: 

• Technical aspects
• Management techniques
• Innovative strategies

Technical Tools

The first element of the technical tools is devising an effective safety program where all the safety standards are adhered to all of the time. The program should possess sound engineering practices, state-of-the-art education, and conduct audits to ensure that policies and procedures are followed. 

The second element covers specialized safety programs to address the unique requirements of the business. These might include a substance abuse program, a fleet program, a wellness program, etc.

The third element involves risk assessment and preoperational planning. The identification of risk and the planning of the operations so as to effectively deal with the risk is a critical activity for all levels of management.

Management Techniques

The first element involves resource management. The organization must provide the resources — finances and time to educate its employees. 

The second element is performance management. This includes such things as goals and objectives, setting performance measurement standards, establishing accountability, etc.

The third element involves measurement, how performance is measured, and what targets it is to be compared to. These may include input, output, process, progress, and outcome measures. Input, progress, and process measures are predictive and provide information with which to affect change. Outcome and output measures are historical and indicate results.

Innovative Strategies

There are four elements in this cornerstone. The first element deals with the organizational systems and business processes and procedures. systems are analyzed to identify barriers, pinch-points, and anything that drives inefficiency or unwanted behavior. This element also strives for continuous improvement.

The second element tries to identify the underlying drivers of the behaviors of individuals. This element tries to change organizational behavior through system change or consequence management.

The third element involves innovation and learning. To thrive, the company must identify changes in the environment and react to them.

The fourth element involves culture and leadership. The values, vision, and strategies devised by leadership ultimately impact everything the organization does, achieves, and becomes.

Final thought

In reviewing the 10 elements, one sees that only the technical cornerstone really falls into the safety area. The rest are a part of the way the organization is structured and goes about doing business. The only way to truly manage the risk of incidents, injuries, and losses involving the company's workforce requires a holistic approach to operations.    

This requires an analysis of the operational means and methods. Preforming operational pre-planning ensuring systems alignment, employee engagement and safe behaviors as well as comprehensive all-encompassing leadership throughout the organization.