Employers are encouraged to use this document to learn how they can use leading indicators to improve safety

and health
outcomes in the workplace. While large businesses may already be familiar with the benefits of using leading indicators,
many small and medium-sized businesses may not know what they are or how to use them. This document can help such
businesses get started. This document may also be useful to large businesses seeking new approaches to using leading
indicators.

SECTION 1. INTRODUCTION TO LEADING INDICATORS

1.1 What Are Leading Indicators?

For purposes of this document, leading indicators are proactive, preventive, and predictive measures that provide information
about the effective performance of your safety and health activities. They measure events leading up to injuries, illnesses, and
other incidents and reveal potential problems in your safety and health program. In contrast, lagging indicators measure the
occurrence and frequency of events that occurred in the past, such as the number or rate of injuries, illnesses, and fatalities.

While lagging indicators can alert you to a failure in an area of your safety and health program or to the existence of a hazard,
leading indicators allow you to take preventive action to address that failure or hazard before it turns into an incident. A good
program uses leading indicators to drive change and lagging indicators to measure effectiveness.

For example, one good leading indicator might be the amount of time it takes to respond to a safety hazard report. A decrease
in the response time may demonstrate an increased awareness in safety and managers’ commitment to workplace safety.
Conversely, an increase in response time could signal a lack of management concern, which could mean that hazards are
likely to remain uncontrolled, and incidents are more likely to occur. Furthermore, workers may decide to discontinue
reporting hazards if they feel that management is not being responsive to their concerns. This can affect morale, which could
have broad implications for the workplace.

1.2 The Benefits of Using Leading Indicators

Leading indicators can play a vital role in preventing worker fatalities, injuries, and illnesses, as well as strengthening safety
and health outcomes in the workplace. Employers that use leading indicators as a tool for achieving these goals have a
substantial advantage over their competitors. By taking deliberate and measured actions that can prevent fatalities, injuries,
and illnesses, these employers demonstrate their commitment to maintaining a socially responsible workplace that values
workers. By strengthening key elements of their safety and health programs, they also can improve their overall
organizational performance.

In addition to the social benefits, employers that use leading indicators to find and fix hazards can realize direct savings to
their bottom line. These include savings in repair costs, production costs, workers’ compensation costs, and other legal and
regulatory costs that are commonly associated with incidents. For example, by fixing hazards that lead to roadblocks in
production, employers may be able to complete daily tasks more efficiently and reduce production costs related to those
activities.

“Today, EHS practitioners continue to rely on injury rates, absenteeism, and other lagging metrics despite
the growing acceptance of the fact that these failure-focused measures are ineffective in driving continuous
improvement efforts. Leading indicators, on the other hand, appear to offer a more useful gauge of EHS
activity by providing early warning signs of potential failure and, thus, enabling organizations to identify
and correct deficiencies before they mature into accidents and injuries.”
— Campbell Institute, Transforming EHS Performance Measurement Through Leading Indicators

1.3 Characteristics of Effective Leading Indicators

Good leading indicators are based on SMART principles, meaning they are Specific, Measurable, Accountable, Reasonable,
and Timely:
Specific: Does your leading indicator provide specifics for the action that you will take to minimize risk from a hazard or
improve a program area?

Measurable: Is your leading indicator presented as a number, rate, or percentage that allows you to track and evaluate clear
trends over time?

Accountable: Does your leading indicator track an item that is relevant to your goal?

• Reasonable: Can you reasonably achieve the goal that you set for your leading indicator?

• Timely: Are you tracking your leading indicator regularly enough to spot meaningful trends from your data within your
desired timeframe?
The chart below demonstrates how to create a SMART leading indicator to address the issue that workers have not been
attending monthly safety meetings. It walks through a good and bad example for meeting each SMART criterion using the
leading indicator “Number of workers who attend a monthly safety meeting.”

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SECTION 2. USING LEADING INDICATORS

There is no “one size fits all” way to use leading indicators. Employers with newer programs may
use indicators that focus on starting a program, while employers with more mature programs may
use them to monitor how close they are to achieving higher performance targets. Some employers
may also find it helpful to limit the number of leading indicators they start out with or how many
they use at any one time. How employers assign who will track and carry out goals for leading
indicators can vary based on the size of the business, who the business has on staff, whether the
business has a safety manager, and the scope of job duties of the employers’ workforce.

This document will explain three approaches for developing leading indicators. The order in which
they are listed does not suggest that any one approach is better. OSHA recommends using an
approach that works best for you, or even a combination of two or more, that may help you to
achieve a specific safety or health outcome.

Leading indicators using data that you already collect to achieve a safety or health goal (Section 2.1).
Leading indicators for controlling an identified hazard (Section 2.2).
Leading indicators for improving a safety and health program element (Section 2.3).

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2.1 Leading Indicators Based on Data You Are Already Collecting

If you are just getting started with leading indicators, you may find it easier to work with data that
you already collect, whether it is data that can improve an element of your safety and health program
or data that can help address a hazard or achieve some other safety or health outcome. The following
example shows how you can turn this data into a leading indicator to help you to achieve any one of
these goals.

EXAMPLE: Percentage of Workers Attending Safety Refresher Training

Step 1: Choose a Leading Indicator

Every quarter, you ensure that you have administered mandatory safety refresher training to your
workers; however, in the past you noticed that some of your workers did not attend these trainings.
Because you already keep track of who attends training, and you want to ensure that you provide
adequate training to your workers, you decide that this might be good data to turn into a leading
indicator. Therefore, you define your leading indicator as the percentage of workers that receive
quarterly refresher training.

Step 2: Set a Goal

In this example, your leading indicator is the percentage of workers that receive refresher training,
and your goal is 100% of your workers completing the refresher training by the end of each quarter.

Step 3: Start Using Your Leading Indicators

1. Collect the data.

To collect the data, you may decide to review the attendance sheet that workers use to sign in before
the training begins.

Tabela nomes

2. Periodically measure progress toward your goal and take action if you are not meeting it.
Count the number of workers that attended the refresher training in each quarter. If some workers
did not attend the training, find out why and try to address the issue.

Step 4: Periodically Reassess Your Goal and Indicator

Check whether you are meeting your 100% attendance rate.

Below are three scenarios that could arise after you start tracking this leading indicator. Each
scenario shows the kind of insights you can obtain and actions you can take once you start using
your leading indicator.

Scenario 1: You reviewed the attendance sheetfrom the last quarter. 70% of workers attended
themandatory refresher training—good, but belowyour goal of 100%. After discussing this with
yourworkers, you learn that some of them did not attendbecause they were out from work that day.
For thefuture sessions, you ensure that makeup sessions arescheduled and continue to track your
leading indicator.

Scenario 2: You reviewed the attendance sheet fromthe last quarter. The number of workers that
attendedthe refresher training improved from the previousquarter, but you did not achieve your goal
of 100%.After discussing this with your workers, you learn thatsome of them had already left work
at the time thetraining was scheduled. You remind your workers thatthe training is mandatory and
instruct them to notify asupervisor if they are unable to attend. You continue totrack your leading
indicator.

Scenario 3: You reviewed the attendance sheet fromthe last quarter. The percentage of workers
thatattended the refresher training was 100%. You decidewhether to continue tracking attendance
every quarterafter it has become routine (or consider decreasing thetracking frequency to every two
quarters). Then beginto develop and track a new leading indicator for otherdata that you already
collect.

2.2 Leading Indicators for Controlling an Identified Hazard

Leading indicators can help you improve your safety or health performance in work areas or
activities where you have identified hazards. Below are some examples that walk you through the
steps for using leading indicators to control the hazards that you have identified. Consider referring
to the “Hazard Identification and Assessment” section of OSHA’s Recommended Practices for
Safety and Health Programs1 for an overview of how to identify and assess your workplace hazards.
In deciding which hazard to start with, consider the severity of potential outcomes if a hazard is not
addressed in a timely manner, the likelihood that an event or exposure could occur, and the number
of workers that could be exposed to this hazard.

EXAMPLE: Inspection and Clearing of Walkways

Step 1: Select a Leading Indicator

You operate an automotive assembly line. During your hazard identification process, you identified
trips and falls that are occurring on your assembly line floor as a top incident leading to injuries. A
review of your injury records showed that 22 workers were hurt from trips and falls in the past year.
Due to the frequency of injuries caused by tripping hazards, you decide this might be a good hazard
to start with. The number of trips and falls is a lagging indicator that you hope to drive down with a
leading indicator.

After discussing it with your workers, you learned that most of the trips and falls were caused by
floors cluttered with tools and equipment that workers used to assemble automotive parts, including
air hoses used for pneumatic tools. You decide that a good first step to address this hazard might be
to inspect and clear assembly line floors daily.
Step 2: Set a Goal

In this example, your leading indicator is the frequency of inspecting and clearing the floors, and
your goal is once daily.

Step 3: Start Using Your Leading Indicators

1. Collect the data.

To collect the data, you may decide to use a checklist, marking off tasks as you complete them each
day.

Check lista diário

2. Periodically measure progress toward your goal and take action if you are not meeting it.

Every week, you review your checklists to make sure you have completed all daily tasks. If you have
not completed a task on any given day, find out why and try to address the issue.

Step 4: Periodically Reassess Your Goal and Indicator

Determine if you are seeing a decrease in your number of trips and falls.

Below are three scenarios

Scenario 1: Workers are cleaning the assembly floors once daily, but trips and falls are still
occurring. After discussing this with your workers, you find that they are completing the cleanups in
the afternoon, but the floors are cluttered again by the time work starts in the morning. Based on this
discussion, you change your policy to require workers to clean floors just before leaving work, and
revise your leading indicator to the frequency of daily cleanups that occur at the end of the work day.

• Scenario 2: Workers are cleaning assembly floors once daily, and trips and falls have decreased
but are still occurring. After discussing this with your workers, you learn that the daily cleanups are
helping, but tools and equipment are being stored in areas that create narrow work stations and
introduce new trip and fall hazards. You find other places to store tools and equipment and continue
to track your leading indicator. You also invest in automatically retracting pneumatic hose reels and
overhead connections to keep hoses off the floor, and consider converting to battery-operated tools
to eliminate the use of hoses altogether.

• Scenario 3: Workers are cleaning assembly floors once daily, and trips and falls have decreased
significantly. You decide whether to continue tracking the daily cleanups after they have become
routine (or consider decreasing the tracking frequency from daily to weekly). Then begin to develop
and track a leading indicator for a different hazard.
EXAMPLE: Truck Brake Replacement

Step 1: Select a Leading Indicator

During your hazard identification process, you review recent worker injuries caused by trucks that
failed to properly stop while being operated. In discussions, your injured workers tell you that they
heard squeaking brakes before the trucks failed to stop. Recognizing that squeaking brakes could
result from worn brake pads, you review your inspection records and learn that you were not
replacing brake pads every 30,000 miles as recommended by the truck manufacturer. You decide
that a good way to address this hazard might be to track the number of trucks that have the brake
pads replaced every 30,000 miles. The number of incidents and injuries caused by trucks failing to
stop is the lagging indicator that you hope to drive down with a leading indicator.
Step 2: Set a Goal

In this example, your leading indicator is the number of trucks with brake pads that are changed
every 30,000 miles, and your goal is 100%.

Step 3: Start Using Your Leading Indicators

1. Collect the data.

To collect the data, you decide to submit a maintenance request to record the number of miles driven
since the last time brake pads were changed. You check each truck on the first of each month, and
use a sheet to check off the trucks that had brake pads changed every 30,000 miles.

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2. Periodically measure progress toward your goal and take action if you are not meeting it.

On the first of each month, you count the number of trucks that had brake pads changed at the
30,000-mile mark. If you did not change the brake pads every 30,000 miles, find out why and try to
address the issue.

Step 4: Periodically Reassess Your Goal and Indicator

To assess your goal, determine if you are seeing a decrease in the frequency of worker incidents and
injuries from trucks failing to stop.

Below are three scenarios that could arise after you start tracking this leading indicator. Each
scenario shows the kind of insights you can obtain and actions you can take once you start using
your leading indicator.

Scenario 1: Every month, you review the number of trucks with brake pads that were changed every
30,000 miles. While incidents and injuries have decreased, some are still occurring. After discussing
this with your workers, you learn that maintenance only checks the brake pads at the beginning of
the month and some trucks reached 30,000 miles two weeks before the next month’s review. Based
on this discussion, you begin requiring maintenance to review the miles every two weeks instead of
every month, and continue to track your leading indicator.
Scenario 2: Every month, you review the number of trucks with brake pads that were changed every
30,000 miles. While the number of incidents and injuries have decreased, some are still occurring.
After discussing this with your workers, you learn that checking the miles on a monthly basis has
helped; however, maintenance staff did not receive the keys to the trucks to prevent their use beyond
30,000 miles, because no procedure was in place that required the trucks to be taken out of service
when they reached a mileage threshold. Consequently, workers continued to
use the trucks without any knowledge of this hazard, and the brakes were never replaced. You start
giving your maintenance staff the keys to trucks that require maintenance as soon as you identify this
issue, and continue to track your leading indicator.

• Scenario 3: Every month, you review the number of trucks with brakes that were changed every
30,000 miles, and incidents and injuries have decreased significantly. You decide whether to keep
tracking the brake pad changes every month after it has become routine (or consider changing the
tracking frequency from monthly to quarterly). Then begin to develop and track a leading indicator
for a different hazard.
EXAMPLE: Arrival Time of Lift Teams

Step 1: Select a Leading Indicator

During your hazard identification process, your hospital identified manually lifting patients as a
hazard. A review of your injury log showed that in the past year 15 hospital workers suffered from
back injuries after manually lifting or repositioning patients. Due to the frequency of injuries from
manual lifting, you decide that this might be a good hazard to start with. The number of back injuries
from patient lifting is the lagging indicator that you hope to drive down with a leading indicator.

You have six two-person lift teams with lifting equipment available throughout the hospital. After
discussing back injuries with your workers, you learn that it takes too long for a lift team to arrive to
a patient’s room after being paged. Consequently, many workers continue to manually lift patients
on their own. You decide that a good way to address this hazard might be to ensure that lift teams
arrive within five minutes of being paged, which is a reasonable goal given the size of your hospital.

Step 2: Set a Goal

In this example, your leading indicator is the arrival time of your lift team, and your goal is for
arrival to be within five minutes.

Step 3: Start Using Your Leading Indicators

1. Collect the data.

To collect the data, you may decide to have nurses use a timer that tracks how long it takes for a lift
team to arrive to a room after the team has been paged. The nurses then note the time on a daily
sheet that is posted on a board in the hallway and shared by all nurses on the floor.

Tabela de tempos

2. Periodically measure progress toward your goal and take action if you are not meeting it.

You decide to review this sheet every week. If lift teams are not arriving within five minutes, find
out why and try to address the issue.

Step 4: Periodically Reassess Your Goal and Indicator

To assess your goal, determine if you are seeing a decrease in the number of back injuries among
nurses and counting the number of arrivals past five minutes.

Below are three scenarios that could arise after you start tracking this leading indicator. Each
scenario shows the kind of insights you can obtain and actions you can take once you start using
your leading indicator.

Scenario 1: You review the sheet every week to makesure that lift teams are arriving within five
minutes.While back injuries have decreased since you lastchecked your progress, they are still
occurring. Afterdiscussing this with your workers, you learn thatalthough lift teams are arriving
within five minutes, youneed additional lift teams because there are not enoughavailable to get to the
next patient when they arepaged. Based on this discussion, you review your stafflevels, decide to add
three more lift teams with liftingequipment, and continue to track your leading indicator.

Scenario 2: You review the sheet every week, andback injuries have decreased further since the
lastprogress update but are still occurring. After discussingthis with your workers, you learn that
some lift teamsare not using the equipment properly, causing them tofall behind on getting to the
next patient. You plan atraining session so that your lift teams can learn how tocorrect errors in using
the equipment, and continue totrack your leading indicator.

Scenario 3: You review the sheet every week, andback injuries have decreased significantly. You
decidewhether to continue tracking lift team arrival timesafter it has become routine (or consider
changing thetracking frequency from monthly to quarterly). Then,begin to develop and track a
leading indicator for adifferent hazard.

2.3 Leading Indicators to Improve an Element of Your Safety and Health Program
Effective safety and health programs incorporate all of the core elements outlined in OSHA’s
Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs:2

Management leadership
Worker participation

Hazard identification and assessment

•Hazard prevention and control
•Education and training
•Program evaluation and improvement
•Communication and coordination for host employers,contractors, and staffing agencies
Leading indicators can help you improve on these core elements of your safety and health program.
Tying elements of a safety and health program directly to lagging indicators such as injury rates may
be difficult, but experience shows that better programs do improve safety. 3 This section focuses on
how to use leading indicators to improve the elements of a program outlined in OSHA’s
Recommended Practices. However, they can be applied to any safety and health program regardless
of what elements the program includes.

Exemplary safety and health programs use all the core elements outlined in OSHA’s Recommended
Practices. Sections 2.3.1–2.3.7 summarize the recommended practices for each core element and
provide examples of leading indicators that you can use to measure your implementation of these
practices. Section 2.3.8 provides examples of how to use a leading indicator you have chosen and
how to measure your performance for that indicator.

2.3.1 MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP

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Leading Indicators That Support Management Leadership

Below are some suggested leading indicators for measuring the implementation of recommended
practices for management leadership:

Percentage of managers and supervisors who attend mandatory safety and health training for
workers.
Number of times each month that top management initiates discussion of a safety and health topic.
Average score on survey questions related to workers’ perception of management’s safety and health
commitment.
Number of worker-reported hazards or concerns for which employers initiated corrective action
within 48 hours (compared to the total number of such reports).
Average time between worker report of a hazard or concern and management acknowledgement of
the report.
Number of safety-related line items in budget and percentage of these fully funded each year.

Take Action
Take action when trends indicate that you could improve your management leadership. For example,
if a busy owner or CEO skipped the safety meeting last year, note this year’s meeting in their
schedule ahead of time so they prioritize attendance. Similarly, if workers are reporting hazards that
are not ultimately addressed due to lack of resources or competing priorities, it may be wise to
determine what, if any, additional resources you can allocate to control those hazards, or manage
competing priorities.

2.3.2 WORKER PARTICIPATION

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Leading Indicators That Support Worker Participation

Below are some suggested leading indicators for measuring the implementation of recommended
practices for worker participation:

Number of workers asked for feedback on good safety goals ahead of safety meetings.
Number of workers involved in developing safety procedures.
Number of workers participating in tool box talks.
Number of workers participating in injury investigations.
Safety perception survey participation rate.
Number of workers involved in developing task-specific job safety analyses/job hazard analyses on
how to perform routine tasks safely.
Number of workers participating in accident investigation teams and helping to identify/implement
corrective actions to eliminate hazards.

Take Action
Take action when trends indicate that you could improve worker participation. For example, if
workers have not been participating in hazard prevention meetings, you should find out why. For
example, some workers may feel that their managers do not value their opinions. In such instances,
you could take actions to change that perception and meaningfully increase worker participation
rates in safety meetings.

2.3.3 HAZARD IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT

Leading Indicators that Support Hazard Identification and Assessment

Below are some suggested leading indicators for measuring the implementation of recommended
practices for hazard identification and assessment:

Frequency with which preventive equipment maintenance tasks are initiated and completed on
schedule.
Number of hours passed after an incident before an investigation is started.
Number of hours passed after an incident before an investigation is completed.
Percentage of incident investigations that include a root cause investigation.
Percentage of daily/weekly/monthly inspections completed.
Percentage of inspections that include a follow-up inspection to ensure that the hazard has been
controlled.

Take Action
Take action when trends indicate that you could improve your hazard identification and assessment
methods. For example, if your goal is to complete all investigations within a week of the incident,
and you are finding that the average investigation has taken over two weeks, talk to your workers
about the delay and develop a plan to complete them faster. Similarly, if workers only conduct root
cause investigations 50% of the time, but your goal is 100% of the time, try to find out why they did
not always conduct them and develop a plan that will ensure that they become a routine part of your
investigations.
2.3.4 HAZARD PREVENTION AND CONTROL
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Leading Indicators that Support Hazard Preventionand Control

Below are some suggested leading indicators for measuring the implementation of recommended
practices for hazard prevention and control:

Length of time interim controls have been in place.

Percentage of recommendations implemented that pertain to PPE hazard controls, administrative
controls, engineering controls, substitution, and elimination.
Number of special work permits filled out.
Number of cartridge filers with an end of service life indicator that were returned or replaced before
the indicator turned red.
Number of hazards identified where you used leading indicators to control the hazard.
Percentage of hazards abated on the same day, week, or month in which the hazard was identified.
Number of workers required to wear respiratory protection.
Number of unacceptable risks identified during risk assessments.

Take Action
Take action when trends indicate that you can improve your hazard prevention and control methods.
For example, if some recommendations continue to remain open past their due date, find out why
this might be the case and try to correct the issue so that you can address recommendations on time.
Similarly, if you have not been using leading indicators as a tool for controlling hazards, you may
want to implement a leading indicator program, and start with just one or two leading indicators
during the program’s first year.

2.3.5 EDUCATION AND TRAINING

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Leading Indicators that Support Education and Training

Below are some suggested leading indicators for measuring the implementation of recommended
practices for education and training:

Number of trainings provided to workers on hazard recognition and control as compared to worker
attendance rates at these trainings.
Percentage of workers receiving mandatory training on schedule.
Percentage of incident investigations listing insufficient Number of workers trained on how to
recognize and report a hazard or near miss as compared to the number of workers that report
understanding the training they have received.
Percentage of improvement on post-training assessment scores over pre-training assessment scores.

Take Action
Take action if trends indicate that you are not effectively administering training. For example, a
leading indicator may reveal that you offer regular training on how to recognize and report hazards,
but workers still do not clearly understand how to recognize and report certain hazards after
completing the training. In this example, you may want to ask workers that have experience or
knowledge of the hazard for suggestions on hands on training approaches and simulations that could
be more effective.
2.3.6 PROGRAM EVALUATION AND IMPROVEMENT

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Leading indicators That Support Program Evaluation and Improvement

Below are some suggested leading indicators for measuring the implementation of recommended
practices for program evaluation and improvement: