Health and safety KPIs: 8 indicators to track HSEQ performance

Health and safety KPIs are measures you track to see how well your workplace prevents harm. They come in two kinds. Lag indicators count harm that has already happened, such as injuries. Lead indicators track the activity that stops harm before it happens, such as hazard reports, inspections and training. Track a small set of both, review them every month, and act on what they show.

Injury numbers on their own are a weak guide. They tell you what went wrong last year. They don't tell you whether your controls are working today, which is why the eight indicators below include both kinds.

What makes a good safety KPI?

A useful KPI is a number you can calculate the same way every time, from data you already collect. Before you start tracking one, write three things down:

• The definition. What counts as a lost-time injury, a near miss or a closed action in your business?
• The source. Which register or form holds the data?
• The owner. Who collects the number and who acts when it moves the wrong way?

If you can't answer all three, the KPI will drift. Two supervisors will count the same event differently and the trend will mean nothing.

Lead and lag indicators at a glance

1. Lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR)

LTIFR is the standard lag indicator in Australia. Safe Work Australia defines a lost-time injury as one that causes a fatality, a permanent disability, or time away from work of one day or shift or more. The rate compares those injuries with the hours worked in the same period.

The calculation is:

LTIFR = (lost-time injuries ÷ hours worked) × 1,000,000

Safe Work Australia notes that frequency rates for serious claims are typically expressed per million hours worked. Say you had 3 lost-time injuries across 240,000 hours worked: 3 ÷ 240,000 × 1,000,000 = 12.5.

Be careful with a single month. One injury can swing the rate sharply in a small business, so look at a rolling 12-month figure.

2. Recordable injury rate

Lost-time injuries are only part of the picture. Many organisations also track every work-related injury that needs medical treatment, using the same formula as LTIFR with the count changed. Your definition decides what counts, so write it down. If you change it halfway through the year, the trend breaks.

If you had 7 recordable injuries across the same 240,000 hours, the rate is 29.2. The gap between the two rates shows how many injuries are minor, which is useful when you plan training.

3. Near-miss reports

A near miss is an event that could have caused harm but didn't, because of timely action or luck. Track the number of near-miss reports each month. A rising count early on is usually good news: people trust the system enough to speak up.

A flat or falling count is not automatically good news. Ask why. Is reporting slow? Do people think nothing will happen? Keep the form short. The incident and near-miss reporting form can be filled in on site in a few minutes.

4. Hazard reports closed on time

Hazard reports only help if someone acts on them. Track the share of hazard reports closed within the timeframe you set, and list the ones still open. Set the timeframe to suit the risk. A blocked exit needs a same-day fix. A cracked ladder rail can be tagged out and replaced within days.

5. Inspections completed on schedule

Divide the inspections completed by the inspections planned. A 90% completion rate means one in ten checks didn't happen. Track findings alongside the count, so you can see whether inspections are finding problems or missing them. A workplace inspection checklist gives every inspector the same list to work through.

6. Induction and training completion

Work out the share of workers who have completed their site induction and the training their tasks require before they start. A crew of 12 with 11 inducted is at 91.7%. That one missing induction is the gap to close, because a worker who isn't inducted is the one most likely to be hurt.

7. Corrective actions closed on time

Audits, inspections and incidents all produce actions. Track how many are closed by their due date and how many are overdue. Overdue actions are where improvement stalls. Review the open list at every safety meeting and assign an owner to each item.

8. Control reviews completed on time

Controls need checking, not just installing. Under regulation 38 of the model WHS Regulations, you must review a control measure when it isn't working, before you change something at the workplace, when a new hazard is identified, when consultation shows a review is needed, or when a health and safety representative asks for one.

Track the reviews triggered by those events and how many were completed on time. If a review is overdue, the control may be out of date without anyone knowing.

How to use the numbers

Tracking is only useful if the numbers lead to decisions. A simple routine works for most businesses:

1. Pick eight or fewer KPIs. Start with the two lag indicators, then add three or four leads from the list above.
2. Write down each definition and the register or form that holds the data.
3. Review them monthly at the safety meeting, with a 12-month trend next to each number.
4. Ask why when a number moves the wrong way. Treat a drop in reporting as a question, not a sign that things are fine.
5. Involve your workers. The duty to consult workers in section 47 of the WHS Act includes talking through safety measures. Crews often spot the reasons a number is moving before management does.
6. Review the KPI list once a year. Drop the measures that no longer tell you anything, and add one where you see a gap.

Avoid targets that punish reporting. If the target is "fewer incidents", people stop reporting near misses and the injury numbers look better than the site really is.

Where the data comes from

Most KPIs come from records you should already keep: incident reports, hazard reports, inspection sheets, training records and action logs. The incident register and the injuries and illness register give you a single place to pull the counts for LTIFR and recordable injury rates.

Keep the hours-worked figure in the same place each month, so the rate uses the same base every time. Payroll is usually the easiest source.

Learn more about how to conduct a WHS audit, which produces many of the corrective actions in KPI 7, and how to report a hazard in the workplace to lift your near-miss and hazard numbers.

How SafetyDocs helps

SafetyDocs gives you the forms and registers to capture the data behind these KPIs, from incident and hazard reports to inspection checklists and training records. Each job's activity log is a dated record of posts, photos, issues, and who read and signed what, so the evidence behind a number is easy to find. Workers can raise an issue on a step with a photo, and when a document changes, everyone who signed is asked to sign the new version.

Common questions

What is a good LTIFR? There's no single target that suits every business. Compare your own 12-month trend against your past results and check the industry statistics Safe Work Australia publishes for your sector.

How many KPIs should I track? Start with eight or fewer. A short list that gets reviewed every month is more useful than a long dashboard nobody reads.

Are lead indicators more important than lag indicators? You need both. Lag indicators show the result. Lead indicators show what to fix next, so they usually matter more for day-to-day management.

Do KPIs replace my reporting duties? No. Notifiable incidents must be reported to the regulator separately. Read our guide to notifiable incidents in Australia for what has to be reported and when.

This is general information, not legal advice. Check the current law with your WHS regulator.