Analyzing Incident Rates by Project or Worksite: • INCIDENT COUNTS BY PROJECT • UNIVERSAL INCIDENT RATES BY PROJECT Analyzing Incident Rates Over Time: • NATURE OF INCIDENTS BY DAY
OVERVIEW / INTRODUCTION:
The many ‘Insites’ charts included with Safety Indicators help you understand, and put to work, Incident data that has been compiled over time. Each type of chart presents information in a different way, and safety teams typically determine which ones are most useful for their own purposes.
Below, we discuss just a few of those chart types, which many users have found particularly useful. But the other charts generally work in much the same way. We invite you to explore and experiment with all the Insite capabilities for yourself.
With clear, color-coded graphic representation, you may learn things about Incidents at your company that were not apparent before. These revelations may touch on both ‘big picture’ issues, and obscure details.
Insite charts for Incidents become even more useful when you employ the Filter functions that help you specify certain parameters, such as a date range. You can also combine filters to slice the data in very specific, and revealing, ways.
Using continually updated data, you can easily spot trends and other indicators that you can use as a starting point for workplace safety improvements and lower Incident rates.
Some of the charts below help you analyze Incidents by Project or Worksite. Others focus on understanding how – and even why – Incident rates vary over time.
INCIDENT COUNTS BY PROJECT
This chart offers a simple visualization of Incident rates by Project or Worksite, over a specified time period.
The left axis shows the Incident Count. Along the bottom are the names of the Projects or Worksites, each of which is represented by a different color.
You can set an overall benchmark of the number of incidents you want to stay below for each Project/Worksite; in this case, it’s 4. You can also hover over each bar for additional information, including the target rate for each Project/Worksite.
It’s clear to see which Projects/Worksites are overall performing better than others in terms of Incident avoidance.
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UNIVERSAL INCIDENT RATES BY PROJECT
Here, we’re presented with more detailed information about Incidents at each Project or Worksite.
The second column indicates ‘Exposure;’ in other words, the number of workers multiplied by the number of hours in the targeted period. Incident rates are based on this number.
The third column indicates the number of Recordable Incidents at that occurred at each Project or Worksite during that period.
The fourth column contains color-coded dots that indicate whether the TRIR (Total Recordable Incident Rate) was acceptable or not. Green means it was; red means it wasn’t. Benchmarks can be defined in the chart set-up.
The fifth column shows the TRIR rate, as a calculation of total Recordable Incidents against total Exposure.
The sixth column contains color-coded dots that indicate whether the DART (Days Away, Restricted or Transferred) was acceptable or not.
The seventh column shows the DART rate, as a calculation of total days spent away from their regular job against total Exposure.
The color-coded dots make it clear at a glance which Projects or Workplaces are performing well in terms of Incident avoidance, and which may require further investigation.
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NATURE OF INCIDENTS BY DAY OF WEEK
Looking at the prevalence of various types of Incidents can be revealing. Seeing how that mix varies by the day of the week can be even more informative.
The total height of each bar shows the total number of Incidents for that weekday, over time. The color-coded segments show the number of each category of Incident.
Is a certain type of injury more common on a certain day of the week? Looking into possible correlations, or reasons for that pattern, can reveal factors that may be worth addressing.
Remember that using the various Filters functions with any of these charts can help you dig deeper into issues that may not be readily apparent otherwise.
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INCIDENTS BY CLASSIFICATION – CURRENT YR VS PREVIOUS YR
Are certain categories of Incidents trending up or down, compared to last year? This is the chart that will help answer that question.
The left axis indicates the number of Incidents, and along the bottom are the various types of incidents.
The ‘inner bar’ for each category represents the number of that type of Incident during the current year. The ‘outer bar’ shows last year’s count of the same Incident type.
When the inner bar is the lower one, that Incident type is trending down since last year. That’s good news. When the inner bar is higher than the outer bar, that means those Incidents are on their way up, and it’s time to find out why.
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INCIDENT TRENDS BY MONTH
Here, we can view several different types of analytical data, compiled all in a single chart.
The left axis measures the total number of incidents for each of the past 12 months. Each bar is segmented and color-coded to show the number of Incidents in each Incident category, for each month.
The right axis measures Incident Rates. The blue line indicates Total Recordable Incident Rate. And the gray line indicates the Lost Time Injury Rate.
Incident numbers and Incident Rate are of course separate data points, but taken together, can offer a more complete picture of what’s going on over time. For example, a month with a higher number of incidents, but lower TRIR and LTIR rates, may indicate less serious Incidents overall – and vice vera.