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
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
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
IWH eight-item tool helping WorkSafeBC assess workplace cultures, interact with employers
The IWH Organizational Performance Metric (IWH-OPM) helps WorksafeBC act on a review recommendation to assess safety culture in the province's workplaces.
Published: December 2016
At Work article
Eight safety leading indicators for the construction worksite
What do flex and stretch programs at construction worksites have to do with safety climate and safety culture? A PREMUS keynote speaker thinks she has the answer.
Published: August 2016
At Work article
OPM follow-up questions now available to help firms act on leading indicator scores
IWH and Ontario's health and safety associations collaborate to create follow-up questions to IWH-OPM score results.
Published: April 2016
Tools and guides
OHS Vulnerability Measure
This tool assesses the extent to which a worker may be vulnerable to occupational health and safety (OHS) risks at work in four areas: hazard exposure; workplace policies and procedures; worker awareness of hazards and OHS rights and responsibilities; and worker empowerment to participate in injury and illness prevention.
Published: January 2016
Tools and guides
IWH Organizational Performance Metric
This evidence-based, eight-item questionnaire helps organizations assess and improve their health and safety performance by indicating where improvements might be made to health and safety policies and practices in order to prevent injuries or illnesses from occurring.
Published: January 2016
Impact case study
IWH leading indicator tool wins over advocates across Canada
The eight-item IWH-OPM is used in several provinces to strengthen safety performance in workplaces.
Published: December 2015
At Work article
IWH leading indicator tool wins over advocates across Canada
The eight-item IWH-OPM is adopted in several provinces as a measure of health and safety performance in workplaces
Published: August 2015
IWH Speaker Series
IWH Speaker Series
Assessing the validity of the IWH-OPM: Workplace case studies
Workplaces and jurisdictions are looking for valid, reliable and practical indicators of occupational health and safety (OHS) performance. In light of this, OHS professionals from prevention system partners in Ontario, in collaboration with the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), developed a leading indicator known as the IWH Organizational Performance Metric (IWH-OPM). Prior testing of the eight-item IWH-OPM suggests it has acceptable internal consistency and structural validity, and is also predictive of future OHS performance (as measured by claims rates). In this plenary, Dr. Basak Yanar, a researcher and lecturer in organizational behaviour at the University of Windsor, reports on a further qualitative study of the IWH-OPM that contributes to the ongoing analysis of its measurement properties. The construct validity of the IWH-OPM was examined through case studies in five organizations, comparing the item and scale scores with observational and interview data on OHS performance. Results indicate good construct validity; that is, organizations that scored high on the scale also had the best OHS practices compared to those that scored lower on the scale.
Published: April 2015
IWH in the media
New tools to help businesses improve occupational health and safety performance
An OHS research project aims to make leading indicator information a key part of decision-making through the development of two new technological tools: an app and a dashboard.
Published: Every Worker, March 2015
Impact case study
Leading indicators and benchmarking key to growing success for property management company
Brookfield Johnson Controls turns to the IWH-OPM after deciding to shift focus away from lagging indicators.
Published: December 2014