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, safety culture and OHS 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
Impact case study
Saskatchewan’s construction safety group uses IWH tool to improve safety culture
This case study details how the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association (SCSA) members have been analyzing IWH-OPM scores to adjust their safety practices and how SCSA has been using the data to tailor their outreach.
Published: February 10, 2025
Impact case study
Saskatchewan’s construction safety group uses IWH’s safety culture tool to measure OHS among member employers
Needing a tool to measure the OHS performance of its members firms, the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association turned to the Institute's easy-to-use, eight-item IWH-OPM.
Published: November 25, 2022
Impact case study
Saskatchewan’s construction safety group uses IWH tool to improve safety culture
Since 2021, the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association (SCSA) has been surveying its members twice per year on their organizations’ safety practices and culture using IWH’s Organizational Performance Metric (OPM). A new case study details how SCSA members have been analyzing OPM scores to adjust their safety practices and how SCSA has been using the data to tailor their outreach.
Published: February 2025
IWH in the media
SCSA uses survey tool to help companies prevent incidents before they happen
An innovative new survey tool is being used by the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association (SCSA) to help companies identify hazards and prompt them to take steps to reduce injury risks, reports Grant Cameron. The tool was developed by the SCSA in collaboration with EHS Analytics, a Calgary-based company that specializes in health and safety data, research and machine learning. The survey is an eight-item questionnaire developed by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) and Ontario’s prevention systems partners to assess values and beliefs around a company’s workplace culture. Data collected can be used to help identify where improvements need to be made.
Published: Journal of Commerce, October 2024
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
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
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
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
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
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