In a recent article on EHS leading indicators, we touched on the topic of training-related EHS leading indicators. Meaning, stuff directly related to EHS training that can be used as a leading indicator for measuring general EHS performance at a company.
Since we’re a training company and offer a lot of EHS training solutions, we thought we’d double-back to that issue and show you how you can track some of those EHS leading indicators that are related to EHS training.
By tracking these, along with other EHS leading indicators, you can really begin to gather meaningful and actionable data about the performance of your EHS management system as a whole.
Convergence Training provides online safety training courses, learning management systems, and incident investigation software.
Explore the links below to learn more about what we do.
OK, let’s get a few terms straight before we dive in.
An EHS leading indicator is something you can measure now that might help you identify, eliminate, and/or control risks that could lead to injuries, illnesses, or other workplace incidents in the future.
Here’s how the National Security Council’s Campbell Library puts it:
“proactive, preventative, and predictive measures that monitor and provide current information about the effective performance, activities, and processes of an EHS management system that drive the identification and elimination or control of risks in the workplace that can cause incidents and injuries.” (1)
We’re talking about things related to EHS training at your worksite that can be used as EHS leading indicators.
This can include but is not limited to:
Now that we know we EHS leading indicators are, and what are some that are related to EHS training, let’s take a closer look at how you can track these over time to identify positive or negative trends.
You can access this information from several different sources. For example:
If you keep records of incident investigations (and you should), or if you have an automated system that does that for you, you can find the following training-related information there:
If you keep records for your EHS management system and/or if you have a system that automates this for you (again, you should), you may find the following information there:
If you keep records of your EHS training and/or if you have a system that automates that for you, you may find the following information there:
Let’s take a quick look at what each of these might look like if you track them over time. You can get this information by going to your EHS training management system and running a report or perhaps by exporting the data from that system and inputting the data into Excel.
Because we assume you’re all doing a great job with your EHS programs, our examples will all trend up. 🙂
Why is this a useful EHS leading indicator? Because presumably, if you’re training workers about safety more, they’ll be safer workers. Which should mean you’ll have fewer incidents in the future.
Why is this a useful EHS leading indicator? Same logic as above. We’re just slicing and dicing the information a little differently. This may help you identify training gaps that just looking at the number of trainings may not.
Why is this a useful EHS leading indicator? Again, same logic as above (more training should mean safer workers). Just another way to look at the data, which gives you another chance to identify any gaps the other views wouldn’t offer.
Why is this a useful EHS leading indicator? Same idea as earlier–more training, safer workers. Just another view, which may help you identify a gap the earlier views might not.
Why is this a useful EHS leading indicator? This is a little different than the other views we’ve shown you. New workers can be more prone to being involved in safety incidents because they’re not as aware of the hazards as other workers are. So this may be an especially important thing to track.
Why is this a useful EHS leading indicator? This is similar to the graph above, but the logic is applied differently. Just as completely new hires at less likely to know all the risk of the job, when a current employee moves to a new job, he or she may not be aware of risks relevant to that job. So again, this may be especially useful data to track.
Why is this a useful EHS leading indicator? Training completed is good, but this gives you a better “window” into whether or not people are understanding that training, which is maybe even better.
How did we get all this data in the section above, you ask?
We pulled it out of a learning management system (LMS), an online software system you can use to administer any kind of training, including EHS training.
Convergence Training makes four different learning management systems (LMSs) that are useful for administering EHS training. They are:
You may find either of these short video introductions to our LMSs helpful and informative:
Enterprise LMS
MSHA LMS
Hopefully that gave you a good idea of how you can use this kind of data as EHS leading indicators, and how you can collect/gather and visualize it.
What are your own thoughts? What EHS training-related data do you track as an EHS leading indicator?
Notes:
(1) Transforming EHS Performance Measurement through Leading Indicators, Campbell Institute/NSC, p. 2.
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