The Campbell Institute

Promoting environmental, health and safety excellence through knowledge-sharing

What are safety leading indicators?

By Cary Usrey
WE HUMANS LOVE TO MEASURE EVERYTHING. Some measurements, like the gas gauge in our car showing how much
fuel is remaining, are fantastic. There is a direct correlation
with the level of fuel in the tank with having enough fuel to
get to where you are going.
Some measurements are not so great, such as with traditional safety measures. Why? Safety traditionally looks at
one metric injuries to answer the question, Is it safe?
Unfortunately, this is only a one-dimensional measurement. It can be said that many injuries denotes an issue
with a safety program. On that we can agree that success
cannot exist if many workers are getting hurt. However, if
no workers are getting hurt, does this then imply that all
is safe? Perhaps yes and perhaps no. Zero injuries could be
the result of a well-executed plan with an equally rigorous
process of implementation where the work occurs. However, zero could also be due to sheer luck.

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Safety Council is the EHS center of excellence. Built on the belief that EHS is at the
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In effect, a balanced approach is necessary. Injuries

or the lack thereof are a very important measurement.
Safety exists to ensure workers go home safely each day.
However, it is also important to understand if work is
being done safely. Can you determine if you are truly good
or simply lucky? In terms of recent vernacular, these two
opposing metrics used to create a balanced scorecard are
called leading and lagging safety indicators.
The Campbell Institute at the National Safety Council has
defined leading indicators as such:
Proactive, preventative, and predictive measures that
monitor and provide current information about the effective performance, activities, and processes of an EHS
management system that can drive the identification and
elimination or control of risks in the workplace that can
cause incidents and injuries.
This is a good definition, yet I wish to simplify it even further:
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Safety+Health | April 2016

LEADING INDICATORS
Safety performance,
hazard recognition

INCIDENT

LAGGING INDICATORS
Recordable injuries,
accident rates

Safety leading indicators are proactive measures that

measure prevention efforts and can be observed and
recorded prior to an injury. As opposed, safety lagging
indicators are reactive measures that track only negative outcomes, such as an injury, once it has already
occurred.
Looking at the gas gauge analogy, the gas gauge readings
are leading indicators. A low fuel light coming on is a leading indicator. The activity of stopping and putting fuel in
the vehicle is a leading indicator. Running out of gas due to
an empty gas tank is a lagging indicator. This is an overly
simplistic example, but it is certainly effective in showing the delineation between prevention and reaction to an
incident.
Unlike lagging indicators, for which everyone has adopted
a shared definition and calculation of injury rates, leading
indicators are many and varied. Although there are numerous
specific leading indicators that can be collected, it is easiest
to categorize them into specific functionality, as shown below:
Observation-based (behaviors/environment) This
can be defined as a specific instance of a behavior or
condition that can be assessed to determine the risk of
injury. Examples of leading indicators can include safe
observations, unsafe observations and participation.
Operations-based This can be defined as indicators that
relate to the functioning of an organizations infrastructure. Examples can include schedule/productivity influences, risk assessments, risk mitigation through improved
Hierarchy of Controls, preventive maintenance, training
efforts and timely closure of open safety issues.
Systems-based This can be defined as indicators that
relate to the management of a safety system. Examples can
include management commitment efforts, psychosocial
aspects (e.g., interpersonal relationships, fear and stress),
culture and design.
safetyandhealthmagazine.com

that the process and the plan are aligned, yet often that is
not the case. Leading indicators are simply ways to measure
the alignment between the plan and the process so that
actions can be made to adjust and correct before an injury
occurs. In reality, it is not the adoption of leading indicators or the collection of leading indicators that lead to
improvement; it is the actions taken with the information
Adoption of leading indicators as an inclusion in a bal- that determine success. 
anced scorecard approach should span the breadth of
each of these categories in some way, shape or form. For This article represents the independent views of the author and should not
example, simply focusing on a behavior observation pro- be construed as a National Safety Council endorsement.
gram while neglecting behavioral drivers from operations
Cary Usrey is a Process Improvement Leader
and systems would likely yield limited long-term improveat Predictive Solutions, a member of the Campbell
ments in the prevention of injuries.
Institute. In this role, Usrey is responsible for impleSafety professionals and the organizations they work in
menting solutions and best practices for customers
make great efforts to create detailed and intricate health
seeking to prevent worker injuries. He coaches cusand safety plans. These plans exist to detail the methods
tomers through an assessment, goal-setting and
rules, processes, activities and equipment that will be
goal measurement process that is designed to maximize safety
used to protect workers and prevent injuries. However, a improvement and widespread organizational engagement. He can
plan is just paper and is completely different than the pro- be reached at cusrey@predictivesolutions.com.
cess what actually occurs at the point of work. It is assumed

Zero injuries could be the result of a wellexecuted plan with an equally rigorous process of implementation where the work occurs.
However, zero could also be due to sheer luck.

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