How Precursor Events Can Prevent Incidents - Part 2
In part one of our two-part series we looked at what precursor events are, and the difference between leading and lagging indicators. In this second part we will explore how to successfully implement the use of precursor events in your organization’s workplace safety program.
Through monitoring precursor events and leading indicators, organizations are able to focus on future health and safety. The goal of this is for continuous improvement of organizational safety, and ultimately to prevent workplace injury.
Know Where the Organization is in its Safety Journey
Depending on where your organization is in its safety improvement journey, you can use different sets of precursor events to match the environment of the workplace:
Organizations With a Developing Safety Program: Focus on Compliance
Organizations that are in the early stages of developing their OHS program, or whose OHS performance level requires improvement, can come up with a few key leading indicators to confirm compliance with legislated requirements
Organizations With an Established Safety Program: Focus on Improvement
Organizations with more established OHS programs or stronger OHS performance levels (beyond basic compliance), might introduce leading indicators to grow and refine their existing programs for continued improvement
Organizations With a Mature Safety Program: Focus on Continuous Learning
Organizations with a mature OHS culture or a consistently high level of OHS performance (low incident rates) can select leading indicators to drill down for deeper knowledge, drawing out information about their health and safety culture
Linking Your Safety Goals to Your Strategy
As mentioned in the previous post, research suggests that using fewer than five leading indicators is most effective. This means that it is important to choose which leading indicators and precursor events you want to focus on, and ensure that they target the arrears of the organization's safety program that will bring the biggest benefit to workers or will address organizational goals. The link between the indicator or event and the desired outcome or goal must also be clear.
It’s also important for all stakeholders to understand the limitations of leading indicators in your safety plan. If leading indicators are new to your organization, then ensuring the understanding and setting expectations around where they will and will not be applicable will be a key part of of your project. This understanding will help build trust in the validity of leading indicator data and its usefulness in improving organizational safety.
Getting Buy-In From Your Team
It is essential to get buy-in from stakeholders at all levels of the business when deploying new processes to increase workplace safety. Involving individuals from all different business units will improve cohesion and help avoid setbacks. Also, when a business unit is involved in the initial stages of developing the leading indicators, this increases the buy-in as they feel that they have had a say in the project and the indicators that are being used to measure their or their team’s safety performance.
Those at the top of the organization are responsible for resource allocation - so ensuring that senior management sees the value of the project will be helpful to ensure that any required funds are available. Also, new safety processes may require training or upskilling among front-line workers, which senior management will need to approve.
Front-line workers, or those who are being measured by leading indicators, should be informed about both the “what” and the “why” - what indicators are being used and why they have been deemed important. This transparency helps them understand how measuring leading indicators will ultimately improve their safety and the safety of their coworkers.
Also, when people do not understand “why”, they are less likely to comply with new changes, especially if those changes impact their personal comfort, ease of performing their work, mobility, or require additional steps to be taken. Without the “why” these new requirements are viewed as something that impairs their ability to perform their job. When they understand the benefits, such as increased personal protection, they are more likely to willingly comply.
Continued Use of Precursor Events in Your Safety Program
Leading indicators and precursor events are used in safety performance measures to drive continuous monitoring and improvement of workplace health and safety. This means that the use of leading indicators does not have an “end” date, but instead requires ongoing engagement from the EHS team and those on the front line.
The ensure the success of using leading indicators, it is important to:
Measure trends - understand the changes over time both to highlight safety successes and to pinpoint opportunities for improvement
Benchmark - set a standard that can be referenced by teams to encourage them to identify and report precursor events
Feedback & communication - as the use of leading indicators becomes more normalized, ensure that the teams are kept in the loop so that they are encouraged to continue engaging with the new safety process