ABSTRACT

Different safety performance indicators have its advantages and weaknesses; no single indicator is ideal and covers all the different needs in safety performance monitoring for an organisation. Instead, using a combination of such indicators is recommended. This chapter lists the literature that describes some critical issues that should be addressed when selecting safety performance indicators. Performance indicators at the corporate level must be of high aggregation. Typically, indicators are selected from the far right and far left areas of the overview of indicators. Following is a proposal for relevant indicators: total recordable injury (TRI) rate; high-potential (HIPO) incident frequency; fatal accident rate (FAR); and performance indicators on management and employee commitment and involvement. When making recommendations on the selection of safety performance indicators, people not only have to consider conditions outside the workplace but they also must consider how the application of such indicators may affect the behaviour of middle and lower management and the employees.