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These programs range from compliance-based safety While the overall frequency of workplace incidents is
committees discussing employee concerns about declining, workplace fatalities in Canada continue to rise.
workplace safety, to management systems and supporting According to the Association of Workers Compensation
control programs aligned with internationally-recognized Boards of Canada, workplace fatalities increased from 842
safety management standards, such as CSA Z-1000 in 1999 to 1,039 in 2010, representing a 25.9% increase,2
or OHSAS 18001. Organizations with strong safety despite the fact that the eligible workforce increased by
management systems frequently embed safety into their only 15.5% for the same period.3 This is an alarming trend,
core values, which are visibly embraced by corporate particularly for organizations that are already the target of
leadership. Often, they even work to build a safety culture heavy scrutiny from various stakeholder groups, such as
by introducing behavioural safety programs that target those in the oil and gas, mining and forestry sectors.
safety outside of the workplace and at home.
Yet, despite this level of investment, many organizations Figure 1 - Trending of workplace fatalities in Canada
have seen their safety performance plateau, and continue
to experience serious safety incidents and fatalities. This
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creates a struggle to determine the next, best safety
intervention and to assess if the current interventions are 1150
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Sanctions A workers compensation board (WCB) issued Cost avoidance in terms of recruiting, nes and
nes totalling $4.9M in 2011, with the highest the impact of negative publicity
penalty imposed over death at a blasting site9
Premium increases The direct cost ([WCB] premiums) of a new lost Premium is reduced by WCB when the number of
time injury (LTI) (in 2007) was $21,30010 claims decreases year-over-year
A workers compensation board was able WorkSafe BC can provide a discount of 50% of
to increase premiums 100% due to poor premium for good experience
experience11
Claim costs (US) Employers pay almost $1 billion per week for Direct cost accumulates in the terms of both
direct workers compensation costs alone12 healthcare premiums and compensation costs
Workplace injuries and illnesses in 2009 totalled Reducing workplace accidents reduces premiums
$50 billion in direct U.S. workers compensation and compensation costs, and frees up cash for
costs13 investment and growth
HR/productivity costs Indirect cost of each LTI (in 2007), including Employee engagement, job satisfaction and
re-hiring, retraining, and lost productivity was commitment have been shown to empirically
$85,20014 improve occupational safety as well as
productivity15
Litigation A jury returned a verdict of $14 million it was Cost avoidance due to litigation attributed to
alleged that Occupational Safety and Health negligence claims in avoidable safety incidents
Administration fall protection regulations were
not enforced and compliance was not required16
Jury awards $82.5M in workplace death
lawsuit17
Current practice in even the most advanced safety-oriented This is where advanced analysis comes in. Through
organizations generally involves the analysis of historical the application of predictive modeling techniques,
safety incident data to identify potential trends. This largely organizations can begin to identify the driving factors of
relies on the analysis of lagging indicators and is limited workplace incidents with the goal of developing effective
to data directly related to the incident itself. This type of prevention strategies. Ever-increasing levels of access to
reporting and analysis can describe what happened, but inexpensive storage and technology make it easier to sift
notwhy. through workplace data to nd these clues. Yet, in light
of siloed data management practices, most organizations
To get to the root of the problem, organizations need a way dont know where to begin to leverage the data they have.
to identify the potential causal factors of a safety incident
and, on the basis of those factors, predict the likelihood
of future incidents before they occur. The clues to nding
causal factors, however, are frequently hidden in variables
not captured in incident reports such as equipment
operation and process data, vehicle telemetry, weather,
geospatial, socio-demographic, human resources (payroll,
performance data) and training, industry and other data.
This enables organizations to extend their analysis beyond By refocusing the analytic perspective, organizations can consider
conventional injury case management reports to other data variables such as weather, aspects of the job site, maintenance
sources not directly associated with workplace safety. schedules, production measures, nancial data, etc., to identify
other causal factors not associated with the worker at all. This
Fusing disparate data sources can also help organizations view positions companies to take preventative actions to reduce the
workplace safety incidents from a variety of different analytic non-worker related risk, such as adjustments to equipment
perspectives. Rather than analyzing workplace safety from a maintenance schedules, placement of machines and vehicles or
traditional employee-focused perspective by trying to determine, scheduling of particular tasks at different times of the day.
for example, what employee attributes contributed to the
incident (e.g., fatigue, training and engagement, age, tenure),
companies can begin to focus on other parts of the workplace
ecosystem to construct a more holistic model of the incident.
Stakeholder
HSE efforts Rosters Incident context
benchmarks
Performance
Investigations Site variation Sociodemographic
history
Production
HRIS prole Time of day
complexity
Weather
The primary challenge associated with leveraging all available data is that
much of it is dispersed among enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems,
case management systems, legacy purpose-built safety applications
and various other secondary sources, such as equipment maintenance
management systems and employee rostering schedules.
Additionally, much of the data companies require can only With our Smart safety offering, however, organizations can
be found from external sources, such as weather reports, begin to source and optimize a wide variety of data sources
geospatial, socio-demographic and other sources of open and fuse them into a succinct data set for simultaneous
data. These data sources are stored in different formats, in analysis of all factors potentially contributing to workplace
different system environments, and are subject to different incidents.
data refresh schedules, making it very difcult to gain an
ongoing holistic view of workplace safety. Approached effectively, this lets companies view raw
data from distinct analytic perspectives (employee, crew,
equipment, site, etc.) by collating the following internal and
external data sources:
Sample analytics data aggregation methodology
Implement
Operational
models layer 5 Modeling warehouse
Analytic
Analysis
results layer 4
Analytic
Analytic data
data set
layer 3
Information surfaced to support analytical modelling and geographic display
Data unication
Staging
layer 1 Minimal or no transformation data quality audit conducted for each quantitative source, some cleansing
Source
applications
Event data Roster data Equipment EE data Qualitative (survey)
The critical aspect of a safety analytics initiative is the ability to act on ndings
in a timely manner. This is where predictive modeling, advanced machine
learning and data visualization technologies come into play.
Predictive modeling involves the application of data Heres how this type of process works in action:
mining, statistical techniques to produce a mathematical
model that can effectively predict and segment future Challenge
events. Methods like the Smart safety approach leverage A large international mining organization which invested heavily in requisite safety processes,
these techniques to holistically analyze disparate data and systems, structures, control systems and supporting culture was still experiencing an
identify entities where certain conditions, indicative of high unacceptable level of severe incidents, injuries and fatalities. Driven by a recent fatality, the
severity incident risk, are evident. company decided to conduct a fact-based assessment of its current performance to identify
key relationships between safety events that may point to incident root causes.
Representative nding
This analysis found that individuals involved in mine site safety incidents were:
Results
The results challenged many of managements views on the drivers of accidents and
also conrmed that preventive actions taken, such as training, were proving effective in
mitigating the risk of incidents. After further reviewing, analyzing and combining these
results with relevant contextual and situational information, the company decided to
implement a roadmap that would help it monitor the effectiveness of its preventative actions
and re-shape them as required.
While it can take time to implement new processes, making Smart safety
a reality can generally be accomplished in three steps: data acquisition
and assessment, the identication of risk segments and the development
of a predictive model and scoring system.
Notably, the cost of data analytics has also dropped By effectively implementing advanced data analytic
considerably in recent years, making methods like strategies, companies can do more than realize clear
the Smart safety approach more cost effective, and nancial benets through increased productivity, reduced
strengthening the business case for larger-scale Smart litigation and sanctions, and the ability to focus limited
safety initiatives. dollars on the most effective interventions. More critically,
organizations can reduce the human cost of safety by
cutting the number and severity of workplace incidents.
Dene initial hypothesis on key Development of segmentation model Develop entity scoring model
issues Exploration and identication of Apply scoring model to out of
Gather information on all causes sample data.
business unit, systems, and data EH&S subject matter expert (SME) EH&S SME validation/input and
structures validation/input and workshops workshops review scoring
Key tasks
Stocktake available raw data segmentation analysis Build at risk segment strategies
Validate data quality, maturity, Prioritization of causes to address. Develop just do actions
linkage for target set Build target domain models Present nal recommendations for
Structure data for analysis Analyze effectiveness of safety levers management endorsement
Optimize data for analysis and size of prize Complete knowledge transfer and
including calculation of all Conduct deep dive insight hand over data asset
derived metrics workforce at greatest risk Commence ongoing segment
EH&S validation/input understand why? (interviews/ analytics and monthly reporting
observations)
The degree of perceived risk inuences the amount of While these statistics show which industries suffer the
attention and rigour dedicated to the design of safety highest frequency of lost time injuries, other industries with
programs and also dictates how closely those programs are lower lost time incident counts can also benet from a
linked with corporate culture and values. review of their workplace safety programs.19
Certain industries stand to benet the most from continued According to a workers compensation board, sectors with
enhancement of safety programs supported by analytics, the highest duration of lost time incidents in 2010 included
according to the Association of Workers Compensation construction, forestry, agriculture, shing and extractives,
Boards (see chart). which all exhibited close to three-month average injury
times. This represents signicant direct benet and lost
productivity costs to participants in these industries.
Average claim duration by sector (2010), British Columbia Number of accepted time-loss injuries by industry (2008-2010)
100
2010
80
Health and social
Injury occurrence (Year)
60 service industries
Days
Government services
Retail trade
40 Construction industries
2009
Manufacturing
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Bryan Richardson
416-775-7335
brrichardson@deloitte.ca
Endnotes
1
Stokes, Malcolm. (August 17, 2010). Reputation Damage The Key to Assessing Business Threats. BT Operate. Retrieved from http://www.
btsecurethinking.com/2010/08/reputation-damage-the-key-to-assessing-business-threats/
2
Canadian Safety Blog. Update Canadian Workplace Deaths from 1999 to 2010. Retrieved from http://canadiansafetyblog.com/?p=1381
3
Statistics Canada. CANSIM database table 282-0002. Retrieved from http://statscan.gc.ca/
4
Conference Board of Canada. (2010). Beyond Benets: Creating a Culture of Health and Wellness in Canadian Organizations
5
Dalbrae Academy. Workplace Safety. Retrieved from http://www.dalbrae.net/cbl/workplace_safety.htm
6
Association of Workers Compensation Boards of Canada (AWCBC). Online Community. Retrieved from https://aoc.awcbc.org/KsmReporting/
ReportDataCong
7
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. 2010 Annual Report. Retrieved from http://www.wsibontario.ca/PDF/OnlineAR_E_2010.pdf
8
United States Department of Labor, Occupational Safety & Health Administration. Making the Business Case for Safety and Health. Retrieved
from http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/products/topics/businesscase/costs.html
9
Hansen, Darah (February 29, 2012). WorkSafe BC issued nes totalling $4.9 million in 2011. The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved from http://www.
vancouversun.com/business/WorkSafeBC+issued+nes+totalling+million+2011/6227694/story.html
10
Ontario Ministry of Labour. Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved from http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/sawo/faqs.php
11
WorkSafe BC. Experience Rating Discussion. Retrieved from http://www.worksafebc.com/employers_and_small_business/Assets/PDF/
experience_rate_discuss.pdf
12
United States Department of Labor, Occupational Safety & Health Administration. Making the Business Case for Safety and Health. Retrieved
from http://www.osha.gov/dcsp/products/topics/businesscase/costs.html
13
Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety. 2011 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index. Retrieved from http://www.libertymutualgroup.com/
omapps/ContentServer?cid=1138365240689&pagename=LMGResearchInstitute/cms_document/ShowDoc&c=cms_document
14
Ontario Ministry of Labour. Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved from http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/sawo/faqs.php
15
High-Performance Work Systems and Occupational Safety
16
Anapol Schwartz. $14 Million Workplace Safety Lawsuit Verdict. Retrieved from http://www.anapolschwartz.com/practices/construction-
accidents/workplace-safety-verdict.asp
17
Lawyers and Settlements.com. Jury Awards $82.5M in Workplace Death Lawsuit. Retrieved from http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/
settlements/14763/jury-awards-82-5m-in-workplace-death-lawsuit-josua.html
18
AWCBC. Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.awcbc.org/en/statistics.asp
19
WorkSafe BC, Retrieved from http://www.worksafebc.com/publications/reports/statistics_reports/assets/pdf/stats2011.pdf
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