Hi All,

What does everyone think is the best way to measure safety performance across multiple warehouses (all doing the same tasks with less than 150 staff)

a) Qty of accidents?
b) Qty of RIDDORs?
c) Lost time accidents?
etc etc

What about qty of near misses reported? The more near misses reported the better?
Discuss.......

I’d do not like RIDDORS since a RIDDOR by itself means nothing in relation to how H&S is managed.
The accident data is useful; in the sense that it tells management that there is something that needs doing. Near miss reporting is very useful since, if done correctly it will tell you how engaged staff are in H&S issues. In this case high levels of near miss reporting can be a good thing (in bad cases it might just mean that the employees are disgruntled and looking for something to moan about)
These are all following indicators; you could also look at some leading indicators such as:
• Employees who had manual handling training\refresher training
• Other sorts of training including fire awareness training
• Audits/inspections carried out; actions and follow-ups completed
• PPE survey- what proportion of staff were found to be wearing the correct footwear etc
I suspect others will be able to add to the list. As far as I can see there is no single magic number that can be used to measure H&S effectiveness.

You can use the TRIF frequency whereby the total number of incidents is measured against the manhours worked. This gives a far better indication of H&S performance as all types of incidents are included and not just LTI's.

None of the above. You need to look at active (leading) indicators and measurement of performance.
Accidents and their outcomes are essentially a matter of chance and give no real measure of the Employers H&S management performance.

IN relation to 'Measuring performance should be a combination of both leading and lagging indicators', Tony Clarke (FCIOB) explains a very incisive and cost-effective approach based on a mission 'action plan' about controlling loss and waste, which includes the category of accidents.

HIs book,' Managing Health and Safety in Building and Construction', Butterworth Heinemann, 1999, repressents health and safety as a form of total quality management; it's relevant to most sectors.