Once your business reaches a certain size, on the job accidents and injuries become almost inevitable. When these accidents happen, you’ll naturally keep track of what happened, try to keep similar accidents from happening again, and do your best to keep your people safe.
But what if I told you that you could identify many of these accidents before they happen?
With enough data over a long enough period of time, you can not only accurately forecast future accidents but identify the root cause before it becomes an issue.
To accurately predict accidents (within a reasonable margin of error), you need at least 30 data points over a 5-year period. But if you have 30 injuries over 5 years, your costs will have already noticeably affected your bottom line – and not in a good way.
So how can we accumulate enough data to make this effective? By changing “accident” to “incident.” Incident is a broader term that helps shift your mindset and enables you to take in more data.
The answer here may be obvious to you – we’re talking about tracking near misses and good catches.
Once you start tracking these “incidents,” you may find that the job hazards present will identify themselves.
Tracking this data doesn’t happen overnight. There are a few key steps to making implementation a success:
- Use a Consistent Tracking System
Having a single place where your information is kept will allow you to retain accurate documentation, run analysis, and even provide guidance about regulatory issues to make sure you stay compliant and avoid any fines. - Setting the Tone at the Top
If leadership is engaged and committed to reducing accidents, you’ll naturally gain buy-in over time. When the top of the org chart is committed to something, your managers and supervisors will take note and take it seriously. This all runs downhill and over time, you’ll see the emergence of that safety culture that you strive for. - Incentivizing Behavior
There are a couple of ways this can be done but will depend on your existing culture and how heavy of a lift it will be to change behaviors. This can be as simple as tracking incidents as an organization, setting the right actions as KPIs in employee evaluations, or offering more significant incentives such as gift cards, paid time off, or even straight cash.
Taking a Holistic Approach
Whether you’re beginning to track near misses and good catches, resetting your recover at work program, or making changes to your safety training program, the more you’re able to successfully implement, the closer you’ll get to having everyone play an important part in preventing injuries.
As you prepare to implement something new or reset a program that didn’t reach the success you were looking for, it’s important to first identify where you can improve or where you might have blind spots, and use that information to develop a long-term plan.