Measuring Performance
How to tell whether your safety management is working: proactive and reactive measures, the injury incidence rate, the safety pyramid and the iceberg, and how auditing checks the whole system.
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7.1 What Is Performance Measurement?
You have learned why you need to manage health and safety, what you must do and how to do it, and how to learn when things go wrong. But do you know how you are doing overall? Is this year the same as last year, worse or better? A sports team measures its performance by games won, drawn and lost, and its place in the table. In safety, the way to find out is to set indicators and keep an eye on them.
Measuring performance matters in every part of life. At work your own performance is judged against criteria. Performance indicators tell you what is going on around you, what has happened so far and what problems or dangers you may need to respond to.
Think of driving a lorry. The speedometer gives your speed so that you can keep to the limit. The fuel and oil gauges warn you before the lorry stops. The tachograph records distance and time. The satellite navigation shows your route and delays. Each is an indicator, and they work in two different ways:
- Proactive indicators give information about the present situation that may affect future performance, such as speed, fuel and traffic.
- Reactive indicators give information on the results of past actions, such as the distance driven and the hours spent driving.
Both are important. It is good practice to build measures that match the objectives of the organisation or department. There is little point in measuring something that does not matter to you.
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