Building Better Performance Measures for Better Conversations to Provoke Change

Injury rates are a thing of the past: building better performance measures for better conversations to provoke change. The Oil & Gas industry has measured safety performance using Injury frequency rates for the last 40 years. Industry thinking is based on the premise that: if we do not have injuries then we are safe, and if we have injuries we are not safe. This paper examines the fallacy of that premise, and the use of injury rates, as a key performance indicator. It argues that, as a key performance indicator, injury frequency rate is no longer a valid measure. Indeed, in many cases its use creates unhelpful discussions in leadership teams and therefore prevents the culture of many organisations from changing. The paper reviews the current state of knowledge in accident causation, in part based on the ground-breaking research from the 1980s through to the early 2010s. It demonstrates how, through the use of Jim Reason's Swiss Cheese Model, Reason and Rasmussen's Generic Error Model (GEMS) and Willem Albert Wagenaar's Tripod model of accident causation, key performance indicators can be developed that will enable leadership teams to transform the culture of the organisation by changing what they believe to be important. Cultures change through the behaviours of both formal and informal leaders. Those leaders create and react to the environment they are placed in. By maintaining injury rates as the industry's key performance indicator we are inhibiting that change and disfranchising our workforce. The paper gives examples of how different indicators both in terms occupational and process safety created different conversations and behaviours in both leaders and the workforce - some appeared extremely positive and others extremely negative. It will then provide examples of how to create better indicators more suitable for your organisation.