Charter Commitment – Reporting

Organisation’s must have robust, proactive, and accurate health and safety reporting of both lead and lag indicators.

Reporting on accidents and incidents is essential for identifying potential hazards and risks. By keeping track of incidents and accidents, organisations can pinpoint areas of their operations where safety measures may be lacking. This information can then be used to implement preventative measures to reduce the risk of future incidents. Health monitoring assessments are also critical where workers are exposed to hazardous substances, and have the potential to suffer long term health consequences. A proactive approach helps to create a safer working environment for employees and ultimately benefits the organisation by reducing the potential for further legal and financial consequences.

However, relying solely on incident reporting can be limiting. Waiting for an incident to occur before acting means that you are reacting to a situation that has already occurred. This is where lead indicators come in. Lead indicators are proactive measures that organisations can take to prevent accidents and incidents from happening. These measures include toolbox talks, health and safety committee meetings, audits and inspections, training programs, and risk assessments. By tracking lead indicators, organisations can identify potential risks before they become incidents and implement preventative measures to avoid them altogether.

Pre-accident investigations are a good method of engaging workers to identify potential harm incidents and enable systems to be developed to reduce risk.

Reporting on both lead and lag indicators also helps to establish a positive safety culture within an organisation. By focusing on both proactive and reactive measures, employees are encouraged to be proactive in identifying and addressing potential safety hazards. This encourages a collaborative approach where everyone is responsible for creating a safe working environment.