Show the Value of Safety Training with Metrics

For metrics to be effective, says Susan Prince, JD, a legal editor with BLR, they need to be the right metrics, and they need to be aligned with business objectives.

"Training is an area that can be difficult to quantify," Prince says. "However, it may be helpful to look at metrics that target the type of training and what it was intended to accomplish."

Prince offers these practical tips for using metrics:

• Make sure metrics give the whole picture, including quantity, quality, cost, and effectiveness.
• Focus on key areas where change is necessary.
• Develop a benchmark to use for evaluating progress toward goals.
• Compare your organization’s metrics with similar measures from key competitors, if possible.
• Use the language of business leaders, including ratios and measurements they know.
• Remember that hard metrics (real data) are always better than soft metrics.
• Make sure the metrics you use are easy to understand and that the data is readily available.

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• Don’t keep the metrics a secret. In order to drive change, employees have to know what is being measured and rewarded.
• Don’t forget that the quality of results is as important as quantity or cost.
• Calculate return on investment (ROI) whenever possible to make a strong business case for safety training.
• Use metrics to identify trends and head off problems on the horizon.

OSHA Cost Calculator

When developing metrics for safety training programs, a key issue is the cost of accidents, injuries, and illness that could be prevented by more or better safety and health training.

To help you quantify the cost of accidents and injuries as part of your training metrics, OSHA has developed a software program that allows safety professionals to calculate the costs of occupational injuries and illnesses on their organization’s profitability.

The calculation worksheet uses a profit margin, the average costs of an injury or illness, and an indirect cost multiplier to project the amount of sales a company would need to generate in order to cover those costs.

Click here to access the cost calculation worksheet.

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And Speaking of Training …

Another important cost to calculate is the cost of safety training. If you’re looking for an astounding number of superior training materials at an affordable price, Safety.BLR.com is the resource for you. This one-stop safety website is a fantastic resource for safety training materials on just about any topic you can imagine.

Training responsibilities become a snap with the website’s thousands of audio presentations, PowerPoints, prewritten safety meetings, toolbox talks, trainer’s guides, and much, much more. You’ll find training tools on more than 120 safety topics along with plain-English compliance analysis and other resources.

At a time when budget considerations are paramount, what makes more sense than an all-in-one safety training and compliance solution?

And BLR has revamped Safety.BLR.com to meet your needs even better. You’ll be amazed by all the features and functionality of the site. Highlights include:

• Side-by-Side State/Federal Compliance. By placing our state and federal regulatory analysis side by side, you easily see how to fully comply with both governmental entities.
• MSDS Library Expansion. The site now provides an immense library of 3.5 million MSDS and SDS forms, with about 10,000 more added or changed every week. Need one? Just call up the chemical by name, manufacturer, product group, or CAS number, then print it out.
• Newsletter Wizard. If you’ve ever wanted to publish a safety newsletter but felt lacking in editorial skills, this new addition is for you.
• Plan Builder. Select from our library of safety plans, customize them to suit your company’s needs, and assemble them into collections you can save in our personal library.

We’re pretty excited about Safety.BLR.com and all of its enhancements, and we’re eager for you to experience it, too. That’s why we’ve created a complimentary site tour, available here. It takes just 5 minutes.

If you like what you see, you’re invited to try the site at no cost and with no obligation. We’ll even give you a complimentary special report for doing so. Go here to take a 5-minute tour of Safety.BLR.com. It may be just what you’re looking for.