You wouldn’t want your low fuel light to only come on after you’ve already run out of gas, so why would you want to solely rely on lagging indicators when it comes to gauging your company’s overall safety?
“While injury rates and claims data are important, they only tell the story after an event has occurred,” says Drew Garcia, vice president of Rancho Mesa Insurance Services and Landscape Group Leader. “Companies should balance lagging indicators with meaningful leading indicators to gain a more complete picture of safety performance.”
Leading Indicators to Monitor
Determining the most valuable leading indicators to track will depend on your company’s specific challenges and risk exposures. Garcia recommends reviewing lagging indicators first to identify trends, recurring injuries or areas of concern.
“Those findings can then help shape meaningful leading indicators,” Garcia says. “For example, if vehicle incidents are increasing, tracking vehicle inspections, driver training completion, and ride-along evaluations may provide better visibility into risk before another incident occurs.”
He adds that leading indicators are the most effective when they directly address the behaviors and conditions that contribute to past losses.
Other key leading indicators to consider tracking include:
- Tailgate safety meeting completion rates and employee attendance percentages versus established goals
- Percentage of foremen and crew leaders who have completed critical safety training such as accident investigation, first aid, CPR, and defensive driving. A best practice goal is 100% completion.
- Number or percentage of employees who have earned NALP’s 10-Hour OSHA Construction Course For Landscape Industry
- Jobsite safety observation completion rates
- Vehicle and equipment inspection completion rates
- Near-miss reporting frequency
- Corrective actions completed versus identified
- New-hire safety orientation completion rates
Sam Steel, NALP’s safety advisor, adds that it’s important to use a mixture of quantitative and qualitative measurement tools. While tracking how many safety meetings are held in a year and how many employees attend are quantitative checks, reviewing pre- and post-test results to measure employees’ knowledge gain after a safety training is an example of qualitative data.
“By establishing measurable expectations around training, inspections, observations, and near-miss reporting, companies can proactively influence the behaviors and conditions that ultimately drive lagging indicators,” Garcia says.
Interpreting Safety Data
Once you’ve determined which leading indicators to monitor, it’s important to designate someone within the company to track these numbers. Depending on the company’s size, this could fall on an owner, general manager, operations manager, safety director, HR professional or administrative staff.
“Regardless of who manages the reporting, it’s critical to gather information from field personnel, where risks are actually occurring,” Garcia says. “Action should be taken as soon as performance begins trending away from established goals rather than waiting for an injury or claim to occur.”
It’s a good rule of thumb to review these leading indicators on a weekly or monthly basis.
“Weekly reviews help identify immediate issues such as missed inspections or training gaps, while monthly reviews allow leadership to evaluate broader trends and measure progress against goals,” Garcia says. “Consistent review creates accountability and allows companies to address concerns before they become incidents.”
Some of the early warning signs that leading indicators can signal include missed tailgate safety meetings, delayed corrective actions, failed site audits or an increase in near-miss reports.
“When safety processes begin breaking down, the likelihood of a more serious incident often increases,” Garcia says.
Advice for Others
If you aren’t entirely sure where you stand with your safety performance, start by comparing against industry benchmarks such as your EMR and OSHA incident rates for the landscape industry.
“Insurance carriers, agents, industry associations, and organizations such as NALP can often provide benchmarking resources and guidance,” Garcia says. “These comparisons can help companies identify opportunities for improvement and establish realistic performance goals.”
Garcia notes that you don’t need a complex system for your safety program. You just need to track a few meaningful metrics consistently. Your safety processes should scale with the company and assign clear ownership for tracking and accountability.
“Leverage available resources through NALP, insurance partners, and industry peers, and focus on measuring activities that prevent incidents, not just the outcomes that occur after the fact,” Garcia says. “The goal is not simply to track safety performance. The goal is to use data to create a safer workplace and prevent injuries before they happen.”
