OSHA Seeks Leading Indicators Input

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is looking for input as the agency considers developing a leading indicators resource. 

Leading indicators are proactive and preventive measures that can provide insight on the effectiveness of safety and health activities and reveal potential problems. 

Officials say acknowledging these metrics can be vital in reducing worker fatalities, injuries, illnesses, and financial impacts. 

The agency is reaching out to stakeholders for input on their current use of indicators and their impact on managing safety and health management systems. 

Leading Indicator Experiences 

This initiative is a follow-up to the OSHA 2019 publication Using Leading Indicators to Improve Safety and Health Outcomes. 

This study concluded that indicators can be used to make measurable and long-lasting improvements to safety and health outcomes in the workplace.

In developing a resource, OSHA welcomes business leaders to share their experiences and expertise and provide detailed feedback on how/where they are used at their workplace. 

• What leading indicators do you use?
• What lagging indicators do you use (OSHA incident rates, for example)?
• What leading indicators are, or could be, commonly used in your industry?
• What metrics do you share with top management?
• How do you determine the effectiveness of your leading indicators?
• Do you link your indicators to outcome data, such as OSHA incident rates to evaluate results?
• How could employers be encouraged to use leading indicators in addition to lagging indicators to improve safety management systems?
• What barriers and challenges, if any, have you encountered to using leading indicators?

OSHA created a full list of questions to help gather information. 

Employers that are interested in participating can submit comments online through docket No. OSHA-2023-0006 before July 17, 2023.

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For more information contact CBIA’s Phillip Montgomery.