Page 114 - IGC BOOK

Checking that you are managing risks in your organisation is a vital, sometimes overlooked step.
It will give you the confidence that you are doing enough to keep on top of health and safety and
maybe show you how you could do things better in the future.

Checking involves setting up an effective monitoring system, backed up with sensible
performance measures.

Investigating and analysing incidents will also make a big contribution to understanding health
and safety in your business.

Monitoring adds value and isn’t just a tick-box exercise.

Good-quality monitoring will not just identify problems but will help you understand what
caused them and what sort of changes are needed to address them. Poor monitoring might tell
you that something is wrong but may not help you understand why, or what to do about it.

Active Monitoring Methods

Active monitoring is concerned with checking standards before an unwanted event takes place.
The aim is to determine.
• Conformance with standards, so that outstanding performance is recognised and maintained.

• Non-conformance with standards, so that the reason for that non-conformance can be
identified and corrective action taken.

There are various methods to monitor performance actively, one method is often referred as
leading indicators

Leading indicators are proactive, preventive, and predictive measures that provide information
on the organisation’s health and safety performance.

If a positive graph is observed in leading indicators, then the chances of accidents happening is
less. Conversely, if a negative graph is observed in leading indicators, then the chances of
accidents happening is high.
For example, Workers will attend a safety meeting every month, because workers are involved in
decision-making process, this is a positive leading indicator, it indicates that workers have
increased awareness in health and safety systems so the accidents happening is very low.
However, if the workers are not actively participating in the safety meeting, there is lack of
worker involvement making this leading indicator to move towards negative graph, it indicates
that workers may have reduced awareness about health and safety system, so the accidents may
happen frequently.
Leading indicators can play a vital role in preventing worker fatalities, injuries, and illnesses, as
well as strengthening safety and health outcomes in the workplace. Employers that use leading
indicators as a tool for achieving these goals have a substantial advantage over their
competitors. By taking deliberate and measured actions that can prevent fatalities, injuries, and

ENSIGN | Unit IG1 – Element 4 – Health and Safety Monitoring and Measuring 2