Rethinking Safety Metrics

Your dashboard might be trending green, but are people actually safer? We dig into why popular safety metrics lull teams into a false sense of control and show how to replace them with measures that expose real risk and drive meaningful change. From TRIR myths to the hidden pressure of “days without incidents,” we unpack how well-meaning indicators push underreporting, reward box checking, and shift focus away from learning. Then we lay out a practical framework for metrics that matter: see risk early, inform better decisions, change behavior and conditions, and lead to specific action.

We walk through a short list of high-impact measures you can implement now. Track serious injury and fatality exposure across high-energy and non-routine tasks so you can prioritize controls before something breaks. Raise the bar on near-miss reporting by valuing detail and outcomes over raw counts. Evaluate corrective action effectiveness by asking if the risk truly fell and if the problem recurs. Bring safety into planning and change management early to prevent conflict later. And hold leaders accountable for what they model in the field: presence, quality conversations, and follow-through on concerns.

Metrics should guide, not punish. When numbers become weapons, teams hide problems and learning stops. We offer straight talk, simple language, and practical steps to rebuild trust through measurement that supports people and improves conditions. If your metrics vanished tomorrow, would you still know where the real risk is and who needs help? Tune in to rethink what you measure, sharpen how you learn, and make every indicator serve one purpose: helping people go home safe. If this resonated, subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a quick review to spread the word.

Hosted by: Joe Garcia, Safety Leader & Culture Advocate
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Safety on Purpose

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Chapters

• 2:35 The Problem With Safety Metrics
• 4:01 The Illusion Of Control
• 4:30 Why Common Metrics Mislead
• 7:31 What Makes A Metric Useful
• 8:20 Metrics That Actually Matter
• 10:17 Using Metrics Without Blame
• 10:40 Final Challenge And Share

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:18

Let me ask you a question, and I want you to be honest with yourself. How many safety metrics are you tracking right now that don't actually make anyone safer? Spreadsheets, dashboards, monthly reports, color-coded charts, all telling a story, but not necessarily the right one. Welcome to Safety on Purpose, where we talk about safety as it actually exists, not how it looks on a KPI slide. Today, we're talking about safety metrics. Specifically, which ones actually matter, which ones give a false sense of security, and which ones are quietly wasting your time and credibility. Because here's the hard truth. What you measure is what people work toward. And if you measure the wrong things, you will get the wrong behaviors. Why safety metrics so often miss the mark? Most safety metrics didn't start with bad intentions. They started because leadership asked, How are we doing on safety? And safety responded with easiest way to count it. Injury rates, incident totals, days without an accident, training completion percentage. These numbers, they're simple. They're clean, they fit nicely on a slide, but simply doesn't mean much at all. And clean numbers don't always reflect messy reality. The illusion of control. Metrics often give us the illusion that we're managing risk. We feel productive because numbers are going down. Charts are trending the right way. Reports looked polished, but safety is not improved by good reporting. It's improved by changed conditions and behaviors. And many metrics fail to tell us whether that's actually happening. So what are some metrics that are wasting your time? Let's talk honestly about metrics that most safety professionals track and why many of them do more harm than good when used alone. Injury rates, let's start with the big one. Total recordable incident rate TRIR tells you what happened, not what will happen. It is a lagging indicator, influenced by reporting culture, often misunderstood by leadership. A low TRIR does not mean low risk. It often means good luck, underreporting, or that the worst hasn't happened yet. If injury rates are your primary success metric, you are managing outcomes, not risk. Days without an incident. This one feels motivating until it isn't. Days without an incident encourages underreporting, creates pressure to not be the one, shifts focus from learning to blame. When the board resets what usually follows silence, frustration, finger pointing, not improvement. Training completion metrics. Completion rates answer one question. Did people sit through training? They do not answer. Did they understand it? Can they apply it? Did it change how the work is done? A hundred percent completion rate with no behavior change is not success. It's administration. Behavior observation counts. Counting observations without quality, it's just paperwork. When the goal becomes hit that number, close that card, complete that checklist, observations turn into drive by conversations, generic comments, box checking exercises. The metric survives, the value disappears. What actually makes a metric useful? So if many traditional metrics fall short, what makes safety metrics actually useful? A meaningful metric does at least one of these things. Number one, it helps you see risk early. Number two, it drives better decisions. Number three, it changes behavior or conditions. Number four, it leads to specific action. If a metric doesn't do at least one of those things, it's just noise. Good metrics create questions, not just answers. The best metrics don't say we're good. They say we should look closer here. They trigger curiosity, not celebration. Safety metrics that actually matter. Now let's talk about metrics worth your time, the ones that help you manage risk before someone gets hurt. Number one, serious injury and fatality, exposure tracking. Instead of asking how many injuries, ask where are people exposed to life altering risk? Track high energy tasks, non routine work, work with narrow margin for error, even if nothing happened, exposure matters. No injury does not mean no risk. Number two, quality of near miss reporting. Not the count, but the content. Are near misses detailed, honest, action oriented? One well written near miss that leads to change is more valuable than fifty vague ones that go nowhere. three, corrective action effectiveness. Most organizations track was the action closed? Few track did it work. Ask, did the risk actually change? Did the issue repeat? Did we address the system or just the symptom? Effectiveness matters more than speed. Number four, safety involvement at the front end. Measure safety involvement in planning. Pre job risk reviews. Change management participation. The earlier safety shows up, the less conflict you manage later. five leader safety behaviors. This one makes people uncomfortable, and that's why it matters. Track leader presence in the field. Quality of safety conversations, follow through on concerns raised. What leaders do signals what actually matters. How to use metrics without destroying trust. Metrics they should guide, not punish. If metrics are used to rank people, shame departments, prove compliance instead of learning, people will game the system. Use metrics to learn, adjust, improve, not to blame. Let me leave you with this thought. If your safety metrics disappear tomorrow, would you still know where the real risk is? What needs your attention? Who needs support? If not, it might be time to rethink what you're measuring, because safety metrics should never exist to make reports look good. They should exist to help people go home safe. Now, if this episode challenged how you think about safety measurements, share it with another safety professional who's drowning in dashboards but starving for insight.