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In industrial safety, one question comes up again and again:
How can the implementation of a program like SafeStart be evaluated effectively?
Many companies focus on reactive indicators. These are data points that only become visible after an incident has already occurred. To achieve real and lasting improvement, it is essential to also use proactive indicators, often called leading indicators.
According to the Campbell Institute, leading indicators are preventive, predictive, and action-oriented measures. They help monitor how effective activities and processes are in reducing risk, before an accident happens.
The value of leading indicators goes beyond prevention alone. They help to:
- anticipate, prevent, or eliminate unsafe behaviors and losses
- manage and evaluate company performance
- encourage safe behaviors, personal involvement, and continuous improvement
- provide leadership with a clear dashboard of safety efforts
Monitoring the support activities recommended by SafeStart, and designed to ensure the application of the five long-term success factors, helps build meaningful leading indicators. These indicators also strengthen those already used within the existing safety management system.
The Five Long-Term Success Factors for SafeStart Implementation
The five long-term success factors for SafeStart implementation are:
- Clear and visible participation and commitment at all levels of the organization, during and after implementation
- Proper delivery of SafeStart Basic Units and SafeStart Critical Decision Units
- A genuine company commitment to 24/7 safety, including family involvement through SafeStart at Home
- Integration of SafeStart concepts into the company’s training and safety management systems
- Using SafeStart in a positive way, not as a control or punitive program
Examples of Leading Indicator Categories
Interpersonal Communication
- Safety talks led by leadership and supervisors
- Safety talks led by employees
- Observations and interactions with positive feedback
- Regular safety meetings
Resources
Resources made available to strengthen the safety culture may include people, equipment, methods, time, and funding invested in implementation efforts. Tracking these resources is also a strong indicator of leadership commitment to improving safety culture.
Process Monitoring and Evaluation
Perception surveys can be useful indicators of progress, change, and consolidation of safety culture. They give organizations direct feedback from employees on specific strengths and weaknesses within the organization.
Encouraging Safe Behaviors
SafeStart helps people become more aware of their physical and psychological states and understand how these states affect their actions. Indicators can be used to better manage how these states are influenced by leadership or supervisory decisions. This includes identifying operational habits, improving safety-related habits, and empowering people to stop unsafe work. In short, it includes everything linked to the SafeStart risk model of error-provoking states.
A Clear Roadmap for Measuring Implementation
During SafeStart deployment and the cultural reinforcement process it supports, an orientation session is offered to the project steering committee. This session ensures proper implementation and follow-up of action plans aligned with the five long-term success factors.
During this session, the steering committee can choose from around 45 indicators, both reactive and proactive, and build a customized dashboard to regularly report progress to leadership and stakeholders. In addition, checklists are provided to measure progress every six months.
Based on all of this, the SafeStart implementation process provides a clear four-year roadmap. It allows leadership to answer a question that is asked repeatedly: How do we evaluate the implementation process?
