For safety metrics to truly drive performance, the big picture needs to be evaluated. For example, if your job performance was measured only by whether or not you came to work regularly and on-time, you could meet the measured criteria, but you might not be very productive, and no one would be the wiser.
Safety’s scope is vast. But many stakeholders who are not safety professionals do not see safety in such a broad way. They see it as “no injury = good; injury = bad,†and that’s where it ends. This is one reason why incidence rates and workers’ comp costs have snaked their way to the forefront of safety metrics. But as a safety professional you know what’s involved in obtaining the “no injury = good†atmosphere.