The start of a new year brings the opportunity to reset your business priorities and goals—and in the construction industry, key performance indicators must go beyond profit. Is this the year you’ll step up your game when it comes to jobsite safety?

Basics and Beyond

Maybe you’re just now getting serious about a safety program, or maybe you already have a decent safety program but haven’t been tracking data. In either case, let’s look at three baseline metrics you should be measuring:

• Average number of accidents and near misses;
• Cost per claim; and
• Average lost time per claim.

A comprehensive safety program can reduce accidents and near misses by 50% or more and cost per claim and average lost time per claim by 80% or more, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. To set goals for these metrics this year, you could target a stepwise reduction, such as a 20% decrease per year for the next three years. Or you could go big with a goal of a 50% reduction in all three numbers.

The problem with these basic measures—known as lagging indicators—is that they tell you what’s already happened. Safety professionals also track leading indicators, which help you make changes before problems arise. Here are a few advanced metrics to add to your KPIs:

• Number of hazards identified during an audit;
• Number of days to resolve action items identified during an audit;
• Number of employee safety suggestions received per month;
• Training completion rates; and
• Percentage of employees wearing proper personal protective equipment.

When setting goals, target numbers that are realistic for your organization. For example, you might set out to reduce the average number of hazards identified during an audit from 25 to 15, and the average number of days it takes to resolve action items identified during an audit from 14 to 8. It’s never realistic to have 100% of your employees trained on a certain topic; a more realistic goal might be 80% of employees complete training on proper eye protection within 30 days. That said, the goal for percentage wearing proper PPE should always be 100%.

How to Get There

Previously, the financial case was made for investing in a comprehensive safety program (see “The ROI of Risk Mitigation” in the December 2021 issue of Construction Executive). That can be further explored by looking at basic and pro concepts.

BASIC: Every construction firm needs an OSHA-compliant, written safety program. It formalizes your accident-prevention plan and gives you and your employees a framework for daily operations.

You should be using toolbox talks as safety training. Employees and contractors are already participating in frequent production meetings—it’s a no-brainer to take five minutes to talk about that day’s or week’s job hazards and proper PPE. Make it part of your contracts if necessary. Everyone knows which firms are sticklers for safety and which ones let it slide; which one are you?

Train new hires before day one on the job. No exceptions. They’re the ones most likely to get injured, and it’s your duty and obligation to prepare them for work. To someone using a chop saw for the first time, you wouldn’t say, “There you go, figure it out,” would you?

Provide proper training for “competent persons” as required by OSHA. These folks need to know much more than the average employee, so you have to provide exponentially more training.

PRO: Now step up your game by conducting a job-hazard analysis for every job activity. Use this as the basis for your toolbox-talk production meetings. Everyone should know which ladders, tools, equipment and PPE they need before they get into their trucks on day one of the job.

Provide more training online. Online training is often more interactive, and it’s definitely more accessible. It’s also available in multiple languages, which helps train employees whose first language is not English.

EHS: Use environmental, health and safety software to manage your safety program. It’s a big investment, so it deserves more attention. When considering the advantages of EHS software, think about the time you could save by moving your safety program from paper-based to online. No one would have to dig around looking for individual hard-copy reports in order to compile data or respond to an auditor’s requests. Data would be more consistent, more organized and readily available to multiple parties on multiple devices.

Managers who complain that they spend all their time “just doing safety” would have inspection forms, incident reports and corrective actions at their fingertips—on their tablet or phone—easily giving them back 50% of their safety admin time. Employees could complete training at the jobsite on a tablet or phone instead of driving into an office and waiting for a computer. Simply put, EHS software takes your safety program to the next level.

Creating a Culture of Safety

You can use EHS software, have the best safety plan in the industry and track tons of safety metrics. But that doesn’t necessarily get you the results you’re looking for. Employees won’t work your safety plan all on their own. It’s management that must create and maintain a safety culture. You have to make it a core organizational value: Our people go home safe every day.

BASIC: Talk with employees about the importance of safety and current best practices at every opportunity: team meetings, manager meetings, all-staff meetings, memos and training sessions. Then:

• Lead by example. Wear a hard hat and safety glasses on the jobsite.
• Implement a simple procedure for workers to report an incident, hazard or safety concern, without fear of retaliation. Assure them that you’ll follow up on what’s reported.
• Make improvements. Follow through on what you say you’re going to do.
• Evaluate your program. How effective is the plan? Is it reducing injuries? If not, why?

PRO: Hold employees accountable for breaking the rules through progressive disciplinary steps. Reward employees for following procedures. And make managers responsible for their teams’ group safety records.

Workers buy into a safety plan when leadership consistently reinforces it, leads by example, enforces the rules, solicits feedback and evaluates the effectiveness of the program. That’s when you’ll have the satisfaction of seeing people go home safe every day—and you’ll meet or beat this year’s safety goals.