Establishing & Reaching Health & Safety Related Goals

Let's start with a question – Last year one of our clients had ten recordable injuries. Did they do a good job or a poor job?

Obviously, that question depends on three factors:

• How many employees worked for the company;

• How many hours were worked by those employees; and

• What industry was the employer in

For instance, if our client employed five people who worked 40 hours per week, then ten injuries would be a very bad record. However if the client employed 1,000 people who worked an average of 40 hours per week, ten injuries would not be so bad.

Furthermore, the ten injuries may be considered high in a low hazard industry such as a call center. Those same ten injuries may be considered very low in a high hazard industry such as construction.

Why is this important?

Because your record is dependant on these factors and each company employees a different number of employees, we rarely speak in terms of how many injuries we had. In fact OSHA doesn't typically ask "How many injuries did you have"? Instead, they ask "What is your Injury & Illness Incident Rate" or "What is your DART rate"?

What are Incidence Rates?

The incidence rate is a trending number based on your Injury & Illness rates if you had worked 200,000 hours. Why does OSHA use the 200,000 hour benchmark? Quite simply, 200,000 hours are the hours worked by 100 employees, averaging 40 hours per week over a 50 week span (two weeks taken away for holidays).

If the total hours your employees worked is less than 200,000 or more than 200,000 it doesn't matter, we use this number to establish a trending benchmark.

What is a DART Rate?

The DART rate stands for "Days Away, Restrictions and Transfers". This number is also based on trending over 200,000 hours but its not based on total injuries. Its based only on those injuries and illnesses severe enough to warrant "Days Away, Restrictions and Transfers".

As a general rule of thumb, you want to have a lower DART rate than Incidence rate.

How can I figure my Incidence and DART Rates?

We have developed an "Incidence Rate Calculator" that easily figures both your Incidence rate and your DART rate (see example below). 

CLICK HERE to download the Incidence Rate Calculator

Once you figure your rates, you now have an easy way to benchmark your efforts from year to year.

Earlier we mentioned the role your industry plays in your rates. The more dangerous your industry, the higher your rates are likely to be.

Wouldn't it be nice to benchmark your organization's rates to other similar organizations in your industry? You can do just that and we'll discuss that technique in a future newsletter. Stay tuned!

We help organizations evaluate and reduce their risk. Our services include:

• Pre-event audit

• Post-event recovery

• Emergency plan development

• OSHA compliance

• Employee Safety training (10 & 30 hour OSHA Authorized)

• Emergency action team development

Our Health & Safety Trainers are available to help you.

It’s easy!  Simply call the office via our toll free number

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