Using Safety Metrics Intelligently

Which comes first—goal, key performance indicators (KPIs), purpose, or objectives and key results (OKRs)?

Should you use leading or lagging indicators?

Are quantitative or qualitative indicators better?

Let’s answer these and address other metric mistakes.

Purpose and goals

Labs should establish purpose first, then set goals. What is your lab’s mission? When I directed lab safety for 500 engineering labs, my mission was to prevent deaths.

Goals are a concrete measure of purpose. Goals answer the question, have you achieved your purpose? My goal was given to me by my first manager: “Keep students safe.” Easier said than done with that many labs each doing different research. But it was our office’s mission, bar none.

Metrics and data

There are many types of metrics. Ensure your metrics are meaningful and work for your lab’s goal. Numbers don’t tell the whole story. Seek out context—it always matters.

Data is good for just a few things:

Bragging: “33 days without a lost time injury!”
Compliance: “86 percent have taken the required fire safety training”
Decision-making: “We’ll focus on the right behaviors to avoid injuries, and the reasons behind our 14 percent who haven’t done the training.”

Let’s examine this idea of numerical metrics being the only true measure.

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure”

Did Deming say this and mean it as stated? It’s actually an excerpt from the middle of the full quote¹:

“It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.”

So, don’t force quantitative numeric data when qualitative descriptive data works better.

Qualitative versus quantitative

Quantitative is easy and intuitive—you just count. How many times did something occur?

But qualitative is more challenging. It’s often more descriptive, contextual, detailed, and helpful. It can be hard to determine and assess, but it’s worth the added effort.

OKRs

OKRs are two-part metrics. Objectives define where you want to arrive. In managing university labs, my objectives were to drive down risk and increase safety culture.

Key results let you know when you’ve arrived at your objective. My key results were a new set of leading indicators, along with descriptions of improved culture from principal investigators and school directors.

Leading versus lagging

Leading indicators are precursors or antecedents—they have happened before. They’re often more about behaviors or culture than things or outcomes. When they happened, we didn’t know our future. A common example is when lab staff don’t put on a lab coat or safety eyewear. Those are often precursors, or leading indicators, to safety incidents. Leading indicators are key.

Lagging ones are obvious after-the-fact. They’re often compliance based. They don’t help us drive our programs forward. It’s like driving a car forward while looking out the rear window and counting all the people you hit as a result. We still need to know how many people died, but leading indicators are key to figuring out a solution.

Compliance versus culture

Drive your lab safety programs via culture. Both are about people, and culture—that is, group behavioral norms—influences safety.

At the same time, you can quantify your compliance numbers as required. Keep track, have them at the ready, don’t use them to drive, and don’t offer or lead with them. Provide them only as requested or required.

Final words of wisdom

Metrics are easier when done effectively. Create them in order, use them as designed, make good decisions. My message? Metrics matter, so make more meaningful metrics.

References:

1. Hunter, John. “Myth: If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Manage It”. The Deming Institute. Aug. 13, 2015. https://deming.org/myth-if-you-cant-measure-it-you-cant-manage-it/

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