Establishing a reliable safety reporting system is an absolute necessity for any organization that seeks to protect its employees and maintain an efficient working environment.

It helps to identify potential risks, reduce workplace accidents and injuries, and ensure that the business complies with all applicable regulations. But many organizations struggle to manage their safety data effectively. Fortunately, there are two steps you can take to strengthen your 2023 EHS reporting: bolstering your data-collection process and defining key performance indicators (KPIs). Let’s explore these two steps in more detail so that you can create an effective safety reporting system for 2023.

Step 1: Bolster Your Data-Collection Process

First, improve your data-collection process. You should be able to identify, collate, and analyze all your core safety-related information. How to do that?

Identify what types of data you need to collect.
What do you want to analyze? First, focus on core data. Are you collecting all of your regulatory information in an accurate and consistent manner? Beyond that, think about how you can more accurately capture safety observations, training completions, and near-miss reporting.

Think about when you want to collect the data.
Which data should you collect real-time, daily, weekly, or monthly?

From where do you need to collect the data?
Are there certain locations, departments, positions, or business units you need to collect data from? Consider the hierarchy or organizational structure in order to ensure you capture the right information that is categorized correctly and that you can build reports from. You should be able to separate information by establishment for regulatory reporting. But maybe you also want to be able to drill down by region or business unit. Are you collecting data from each of those units?

Lastly, how are you going to collect the data?
You need to have a practical approach to data capture that fits your business needs. If team members in the field do not have an Internet connection and you’re expecting real-time data, you’re being unrealistic. You’ll have to give them the tools they need to meet your expectations.

Keep your expectations realistic.
You’re not going to go from an organization that is strictly capturing incident rates to one that collects 50 data points overnight. Set an achievable goal. Also, set target dates for refining and reassessing your plan as you progress.

Step 2: Define Your KPIs

Second, work with your leadership team to define your organization’s KPIs for 2023. Together, identify how you measure success. What are the leading and lagging indicators that are relevant for your company? One organization might focus on encouraging participation, and another might focus on tracking safety observations.

Key performance indicators are measurements of the essential processes and outcomes of the safety program. They will be the driving force behind your data-collection efforts (in addition to the data you must collect to meet regulatory reporting obligations).

Use the actual versus predicted data and the actual year-over-year comparisons to create reports that lead you to actionable insights you can then roll over into goals for the next year’s safety program. Used correctly, KPIs will help you decrease your OSHA cases and show how your safety program is truly performing. But the true purpose of KPIs is to help you be proactive in incident prevention.

By improving your data-collection process and defining KPIs, you can create a more effective safety reporting system.

Don’t forget that data collection should be tailored to your organization’s specific needs to ensure all relevant information is captured accurately and consistently. And your KPIs will help measure success and track progress over time as well as provide actionable insights that lead to incident prevention.

With these two steps taken care of, you’ll have set yourself up for success with an efficient EHS reporting system come 2023!

KPA Helps Businesses Take a Data-Driven Approach to Safety

KPA simplifies data visualization and reporting, giving users easy access to actionable insights into their EHS program performance. Your data is presented in real-time, so no delay or extra steps are required to access the information. The dashboards are configured based on features tailored to your business’s unique requirements, giving you the power to make informed decisions that impact workplace safety.

Let KPA show you how to take a data-driven approach to safety.