Understanding Occupational Health & Safety Outcomes with Severity-Based Lagging Indicators
The Lost-Time Injury Rate (LTIR) is one of the most common metrics used by workplaces to determine how they are performing when it comes to health and safety. But is it the best?
Many OHS experts criticize the LTIR for some of its limitations. It looks backward in time, it isn’t predictive of future risks, it can fluctuate significantly – especially in smaller companies – plus more. But in a recent article published by the American Society of Safety Professionals, another drawback is described; one that workplaces should consider.
What’s the problem with the Lost-Time Injury Rate?
The Lost-Time Injury Rate treats every lost-time injury equally. A minor trip over clutter resulting in two days off work is counted the same as a severe fall from a 14-story building that leads to 68 days of absence. Evidence suggests that not all workplace injuries are created equal, and counting them the same may not be ideal.
What is the Severity-Based Lagging Indicator (SBLI)?
The article in Safety Professional describes the Severity-Based Lagging Indicator (SBLI) as a better way to keep track of injuries in the workplace and to better characterize their level of severity. The SBLI assigns more weight to injuries that are more severe.
Consider the challenge of judging the weight of a black bag just by looking at it without knowing its contents. A clear bag would make your decision easier – it could contain either ping pong balls or heavy rocks. Similarly, the SBLI allows us to better understand the injuries we had because not all injuries are counted the same.
Adding Weight to More Severe Injuries: Can the Severity-Based Lagging Indicator help?
The SBLI is a single number that combines how frequently injuries happen with the severity of each one. It assigns a weight to each injury.
Imagine each block in this illustration represents 1 injury. Both sides of the scale contain an equal number (29 injuries). However, if the size of each block represents the severity of that injury, then the left side of the scale weighs more because it holds more heavier blocks. The SBLI for the injuries on the left side is greater than the SBLI for injuries on the right side because it holds more weight.
Severity-Based Lagging Indicator: Is it time to do away with the Lost-Time Injury Rate?
The SBLI shares some of the same limitations as traditional lagging indicators, but it is a way for workplaces to incorporate severity with frequency into a single number that better reflects the nature of these types of injuries. This is an important consideration for monitoring injuries, especially for those pursuing the Certificate of Recognition (COR™)
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