In the absence of reliable data on labour hours, has anyone used INCOME as a factor to compare accident rates between different business units carrying out similar types of work? We have frequent use of overtime, which varies between business units. I have up to date headcounts, but don't yet have access to up to date overtime data (on a different system, etc). I can analyse by headcount, or adjust this for average weekly hours and calculate rates per 100,000 but without knowing overtime this is misleading. I was thinking about what I *can* do as a way to both measure change over time within a business unit, and to compare it with others. I could calculate accidents by headcount, and just add the proviso about overtime as above, and I could also calculate accidents per pound of income (or the reverse). It was this last one that I wondered if anyone else has used. I know it's very crude - the type of work would have to remain pretty constant in order to track over time. Any changes to more expensive plant / equipment / materials would alter the accident data, but we are pretty consistent across years and I'd like to introduce the idea of benchmarking other than by raw accident numbers, which is what happens currently. Any advice appreciated, thanks.

Hi Kate, I mean turnover for the relevant business unit, so I'd be aiming to use that as a (crude) measure of how much "work" occurred in a period. Thanks

Hi Ron, I'm working on a cost-of-accidents analysis, but that's not what this one is about. All I'm doing here is seeing if anyone has used the INCOME of a business unit as a rough measure of the amount of work going on. The cost of accidents has been a bit simpler to report on, thankfully.

I agree with Chris- its people that have accidents not turnover. It can be surprisingly difficult finding out how many people work in a particular business (about half of them ha-ha) and it took me ages to realise that our HR people had no idea but finance knew fairly accurately.

I agree with both of you - as I said, this suggestion is only because I can't get hold of accurate figures for overtime hours worked (in some parts of the company there's a lot, in others very little), and the point is only to benchmark internally. We're a labour-intensive business and I'd expect a decent correlation between working hours and income, within each business unit.   I'm still pushing for the data I want, but now that it's taken over a year I've been trying to come up with something else I can do to allow units to track their performance, beyond raw numbers of accidents.   Thanks for the comments - I knew income was only ever going to be a rough guide, but the reaction here makes me think your points would probably be mirrored by anyone I present the data to! That's actually very useful to know - I think I'll just keep to plan A (hours worked) and eventually get what I need for regular AFRs.   Have a fine weekend