1. Selected topics

Leading OHS indicators

Occupational health and safety (OHS) leading indicators are performance measures that help predict injuries and illnesses, allowing workplaces and system partners to gauge an organization’s health and safety climate, culture and performance before injuries and illnesses occur. Their opposite is lagging indicators such as injury and claims rates, which measure performance based on injuries and illnesses that have already occurred. IWH research focuses on finding and validating the measures that will accurately gauge the likelihood of an organization’s future OHS performance, as well as the best way to use leading indicators to prevent future work-related injuries, illnesses and deaths.

Featured

Overhead view of two people in safety helmets walking up the stairs in a plant
At Work article

IWH tool comes out ahead in Australian study of OHS leading indicator tools

In an Australian study of five health and safety leading indicator tools around the world, a measure developed by IWH has come out ahead for its ability to pick up workers’ risk of reporting a physical injury or a near miss at work.
Published: February 7, 2023
Overhead view of two people in safety helmets walking up the stairs in a plant
At Work article

IWH tool comes out ahead in Australian study of OHS leading indicator tools

In an Australian study of five health and safety leading indicator tools around the world, a measure developed by IWH has come out ahead for its ability to pick up workers’ risk of reporting a physical injury or a near miss at work.
Published: February 2023
Construction work on the new Victoria Bridge in downtown Saskatoon
Impact case study

Saskatchewan’s construction safety group uses IWH’s safety culture tool to measure OHS among member employers

When the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association went looking for a tool to measure the OHS performance of its members firms, it turned to the Institute's easy-to-use, eight-item safety culture measure—the IWH-OPM.
Published: November 2022
Excellence written on road way
Impact case study

WSIB includes Institute safety culture tool in Health and Safety Excellence Program

Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board made a modified version of an Institute safety culture tool called the IWH-OPM available to firms as a voluntary component of participating in its Health and Safety Excellence Program.
Published: March 2022
A hard hat, placed next to a check list, against a black background
At Work article

Can an eight-item questionnaire pick up on real-world differences in OHS practice?

How well can a set of eight questions capture something as broad and multi-faceted as an organization’s OHS policies and practices? An IWH study examines practices and policies at organizations that had completed the IWH-OPM. It finds consistent patterns in how high- and medium-scorers approach OHS.
Published: February 2020
Journal article
Journal article

Understanding the organizational performance metric, an occupational health and safety management tool, through workplace case studies

Published: International Journal of Workplace Health Management, January 2020
Journal article
Journal article

Utilizing construction safety leading and lagging indicators to measure project safety performance: a case study

Published: Safety Science, December 2019
A bird's eye view of a construction work site
At Work article

Construction safety association develops OHS assessment tool with IWH’s expertise

Building construction employers in Manitoba can now use an evidence-based online dashboard to assess their OHS performance⁠—and see how it stacks up against those of industry peers⁠—thanks to a collaboration between IWH and a sector safety association.
Published: July 2019
Top-down view of a desk with a clipboard and a report
Research Highlights

How do OHS leaders use health and safety benchmarking?

Workplace health and safety leaders use benchmarking reports on health and safety performance to help inform decision-making and improve occupational health and safety performance. That's according to an interview-based study of OHS leaders who took part in an IWH leading indicators research project.
Published: July 2019
Graphic of gears indicating meshing of workplace and culture
At Work article

What research can do: SAFE Work Manitoba incorporates IWH tool into safety culture framework

They had a five-year plan with initiatives related to building a culture of safety across Manitoba. But they were missing a definition of safety culture—and a way to measure it. That was when SAFE Work Manitoba turned to IWH expertise.
Published: February 2019
Journal article
Journal article

Larger workplaces, people-oriented culture, and specific industry sectors are associated with co-occurring health protection and wellness activities

Published: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, December 2018