A Balanced Scorecard of Leading and Lagging Indicators for Your Electrical Safety Program: Copyright Material IEEE ESW2021-12

Lost time electrical injuries are among the rarest injuries in the workplace, contributing less than 0.2% of all workplace injuries. Yet, contact with electrical energy is a leading cause of fatal injuries. These two attributes, very low frequency and very severe consequence, create a serious challenge in measuring the effectiveness of electrical safety programs. The traditional measurement of injury rates, a lagging indicator, may blind an organization to future injury potential. The low frequency of electrical injuries may result in an organization having insufficient data points to be statistically valid. This paper explores opportunities to complement traditional methods of measuring safety performance with leading indicators to provide a balanced scorecard of lagging and leading indicators to drive continual improvement in reducing the risk of electrical injuries. The paper will incorporate recent advancements in regulatory guidance and voluntary standards in safety performance measurement. Specific references will include Work Safe Alberta Leading Indicators in Workplace Safety and Health (published in 2015) and US OSHA Using Leading Indicators to Improve Safety and Health Outcomes (published in 2019). The paper will include a method for an organization to benchmark current metrics for its electrical safety program against advanced practices to measure and manage continual improvement.