In terms of safety reporting, every organization has to report incident rates and OSHA-reportable incidents. Aside from that, each company measures different KPIs and defines success differently.

What does your leadership team look for when it comes to safety reporting? Are you delivering everything they’re looking for? Here’s how you can make sure you’re covering all the bases.

Make Your Reports Insightful and Actionable

One thing that never changes about what leadership expects from the year-end report: It should be insightful as well as actionable. To get to that point, you first need to address the quality of the data. How do you do that? We’re glad you asked…we’ll be covering that in an upcoming article (you’re subscribed to the blog, right?) The data must be complete, accurate, and relevant.

How to Create Insightful Safety Reports

To make your reporting insightful, you need to summarize the results for the reader. Such a summary should include:

• How you’re performing today;
• How that compares to how you performed last year;
• How you performed against the goals you established at the beginning of the year;

• The program’s strengths;
• The program’s weaknesses, gaps, and areas of concern; and
• A prediction of where incidents will likely occur in the future.

How to Create Actionable Safety Reports

All of the information in your summary tells a story with a starting and middle point. Next, tell the end of the story by addressing the “actionable” part of reporting. Describe what you’re going to focus on next—the ways you can make the most impact on safety—and the likely outcomes. Because you have quality data to back you up, you’ll be able to make a compelling case for your predictions.

Avoid Common Safety Reporting Mistakes

The two most common mistakes safety professionals make in terms are not having the processes and procedures in place to collect complete and accurate data.

Incomplete Data

For data to be complete, you must be able to classify and categorize recordable incidents appropriately. You need to track the right data, such as safety observations, near misses, and training completion.

With complete data, you can’t establish baselines, benchmarks, and goals for moving forward. You’re unable to depict the state of your safety program and feel confident that you are headed in the right direction.

Inaccurate Data

The second biggest mistake organizations need to correct in safety reporting is collecting inaccurate data. For example, just because an incident is subject to a workers’ compensation claim doesn’t necessarily make it OSHA recordable. And the reverse is true as well. Again, you need to implement the proper processes and procedures to ensure your data is accurate.

Integrate Safety with ESG Reporting

ESG reporting spans the environmental, social, and governance risks your company faces. ESG reporting should include current and planned sustainability initiatives. This is the way to show that you’re a good steward of your environment and the community. Safety plays a big role in demonstrating that your organization is an attentive caretaker of its workforce.

Integrating safety reporting with ESG reporting reminds your reader that you have your workers’ best interests and well-being in mind. Not only are you tracking and managing data, but you have controls in place to lower risks and hazards. It shows you’re tracking more than what’s happening now, because you’re also describing the preventative measures you take.

KPA Helps Businesses Take a Data-Driven Approach to Safety