How to Keep the OSHA Incident Rate Low
An OSHA incident rate can tell us if a visit from OSHA is imminent. It won’t be a good day if a call is received from an auditor that he/she is on their way to the facility. The one thing you know for sure, it will be a long one. So how can you calculate your OSHA incident rate so you know if you qualify for an OSHA visit? Let’s take a closer look.
What is an OSHA Incident Rate?
An OSHA incident rate will let you know how often a recordable injury or illness occurs in your facility over a period of time. Most safety professionals use the guiding metric to understand and compare the safety program from one period of time to the next. The OSHA incident rate can also give deeper meaning and understanding when you make a business case for implementing a new safety program.
Here’s What We Know…
We know that when we conduct an OSHA incident rate, that we’re taking a look at the past period of time, say 12 months. This isn’t necessarily an indicator for what’s ahead, however, if you’ve been recording for at least a few years, it will give you immediate knowledge if you’ve improved or did something go wrong the bring the number down.
If using the OSHA incident rate is new for you, it will give you an inside look as to how to rate your company in comparison to others within your industry.
TRIR Calculation Basics
The Total case incident rate or also called the Total recordable incident rate, TRIR is a formula that takes the total number of incidents and the total hours worked within 12 months. Now, be sure to use a number that includes all forklift drivers and other workers. What are we aiming for? Simple. The lower the rate, the better the safety performance rate. Here are some rates:
- Transportation and Warehousing – 4.0
- Manufacturing – 3.1
- Construction – 2.5
The formula for the OSHA incident rate is as follows:
Take the total number of recordable incidents x 200,000 and divide it by the total number of hours worked by workers. Now remember, this is for recordable incidents, meaning you have documentation for it. If you know there may be some that are not recorded, then conduct the calculation again and understand what the difference may be. It may be nothing, or it may tell you that not enough incidents are being recorded.
How to Keep the OSHA Incident Rate Low
We want to be sure that you come to a low score honestly. You can accomplish this by understanding your safety culture, be sure any incidents are being reported and dealt with in an credible way and implement technology that help you achieve your goal.
OSHA Compliance with a Forklift Safety System can help you with your OSHA incident rate. Here’s how:
- No forklift operator can begin their shift without scanning their badge for authorization
- No forklift operator can begin their shift without a completed pre-shift inspection
- You can take the S2 digital checklist (used above 2 bullets) and use it for other areas of the facility that needs a digital inspection checklist (contact sales@siera.ai to learn more)
- Track near misses to identify where problems are arising so you can take action before it matures into a low, medium or high impact
- Track low, medium and high impacts so you can administer training where needed, and make changes within the facility to reduce the number of impacts.
These types of changes will help to bring down the OSHA incident rate within your facility. Contact us today at sales@siera.ai to begin taking control of your facility.