Safety performance measurement Objectivity

In selecting measuring devices, a firm should use only activity measures at the lower managerial or unit levels, primarily activity measures (with some results measures) at the middle-upper management levels, and pure results measures for the executive level (Peterson, p. 40). The safety performance measures should be geared toward the employee s responsibilities and objectives. Employees at the supervisory and middle management level are focused on motivating employees to perform. Safety perfor-... 

The objective in making and using an effective audit tool for the purpose of measuring safety performance is to determine the correlation between the audit, its individual items, and the safety performance measure. 

Any organization that wishes to improve and sustain process safety performance must clearly establish its performance goals and objectives. Efforts to sustain and improve process safety performance will require a means to measure and evaluate that performance. Collecting performance information enables an organization to achieve their desired goals and objectives by helping to ... 

Sections (d) and (e) of DEAR, 48 CFR 970.5204.2, require contractors to develop safety performance objectives and measures, and commitments and measure ISMS effectiveness. 

Quantitative Risk Assessment. Previous sections in this chapter dealt with the identification, measurement, and mitigation of hazards in a chlor-alkali plant. Plant safety and Responsible Care programs define the objectives of continuous improvement in safety performance. The discussion of mitigation immediately above naturally leads on to the larger question of the most direct and cost-effective approach to this improvement. 

The term safety metrics refers to the body of knowledge used to quantify and measure safety performance. A safety metric is the measurement of key processes in order to provide an objective basis for determining process performance (Daugherty 1999,144). On the corporate level, metrics identifies divisions or facilities that need to improve... 

Safety Objectives, and 3) Performance Measures (United States Department of Energy, Hanford Site 2001). 

Outcome measures reflect the company s key safety objectives and are used to determine whether the company has reached them. These measures, sometimes referred to as lagging indicators, typically demonstrate the final results of the safety process. They are often commonly recognized or standard measures, such as those quoted in benchmarking studies. They are also the measures that tend to be tracked by CEOs, presidents, and vice presidents. Examples of outcome measures for a safety metrics program include lost workday rates, recordable injury rates, and number of miles driven without an accident. These indicators are referred to as lagging because they measure safety performances that are the result of, or occur after, an activity. 

When selecting micro-view and macro-view measures, the performance measure should reflect an organizational process. Linking the safety measures to the organizational process provides a method for determining if the performance measures help the organization meet its goals and objectives. 

When developing the objectives for the safety performance program established, the data needs should be identified. Data concerns that should addressed early involve determining if the data needed for the performance measures exist and if so, is the data reliable and readily available. Also, in order to measure a safety performance objective effectively, more than one measure maybe needed. It is best to use avariety of measures to ascertain performance rather than just one. Multiple measures provide a better picture of the true status of the safety performance. 

The primary objective of measuring safety performance is to provide a feedback mechanism that will foster continuous improvement. A process for implementing such a program relies on the following steps (Krause and Hidley 1990,161) ... 

One example of a methodology is 1) Mission and Vision 2) Safety Objectives and 3) Performance Measures. 

Qualitative performance measurements, such as checklists, are commonly used to assess the status of safety and health programs. Quantitative, or objective, performance measurements are necessary for precision, consistency, and reproducibility. 

The primary objective of measuring safety performance is to provide a feedback mechanism that will foster continuous improvement... 

The team that developed Process Safety Research for the 2Century expressed the elusive nature of understanding process safety culture in these words. "The safety culture of an organization has a significant impact on its safety performance. Although the level of safety culture of a work community can be subjectively observed immediately after entering that community, an objective measure is difficult to define. Moreover, establishing effective improvement, if needed is not an easy task... [6]. ... 

Develop objectives to include specific areas of performance that can be measured and/or verified. For example, Improve safety performance in my department next month is too general as an objective. A better objective may be, for example, Reduce first aid cases by 10 percent next month. Even more measurable goals are those objectives where managers and/or supervisors have complete control— for example, Hold 30-minute safety meetings for all employees in my area every Monday morning at 7 00 a.m. As noted previously, objectives must be realistic and attainable and should represent a significant challenge. 

The next step is to establish performance objectives for all employees with assigned safety responsibilities. These objectives must be realistic, understandable, measurable, and achievable. It is your job as a manager to clearly establish who is responsible for performing specific tasks. Evaluate your assignments of responsibility to make sure that they specify who does what and how they do it, and that they are realistic and reasonably attainable. When objectives are unclear, they can be misunderstood. In this case, it will be hard to determine whose performance is lacking— the manager or the employee [1]. 

Management is responsible for establishing safety and environmental objectives, goals and performance measures and should consider the following ... 

Developing job performance objectives and establishing performance measurements (Managing worker safety and health, n.d. Managing Worker Safety and Health,... 

Objectives must be based upon performance measurements, which are milestones that tell if the person did or did not perform his or her assigned safety-related task as defined. 

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