HSE Agenda Trends: Success Drivers and Main Challenges

Evolution of Key Performance Indicators in HSE

The development of a safety culture requires a transition from formal metrics to conscious risk management. During the webinar, Sergey Kolychev, Head of HSE Services at KPMG, analyzes the results of a large-scale industry study, focusing on the approaches of major industrial companies to goal-setting.

The traditional Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) remains a basic standard necessary for ESG ratings and public reporting. However, the speaker emphasizes that using exclusively reactive indicators limits prevention opportunities. For high-quality management, companies need to implement proactive metrics: recording incidents without consequences (Near Misses), behavioral, and rating audits. This allows working with the base of the injury pyramid, identifying systemic problems before real damage occurs.

Special attention is paid to working with contractors. Modern disclosure standards, including GRI 403, require accounting for contractor injuries on par with internal personnel. Ignoring this factor distorts the real safety picture at company-controlled facilities.

Assessing Incident Damage: A Practical Approach

The issue of financially justifying occupational safety costs often baffles specialists. The presentation details the paradox of damage assessment: the direct financial loss from ordinary injuries (payouts, sick leave) is too small to serve as a compelling argument for large-scale investments in safety.

Instead of complex and not always justified calculations, the speaker suggests focusing on operational losses that are understandable to the business. Accounting for injury severity through lost man-days (impact on absenteeism) and recording downtime hours of main equipment provide a more transparent and convincing picture for management. A full financial assessment is advisable primarily for major accidents where insurance loss adjustment mechanisms operate.

Implementing Change Projects and the Role of the Business Sponsor

The success of implementing new procedures directly depends on integrating HSE processes into the overall business model of the enterprise. Analysis shows that projects achieve their goals only when there is a specific sponsor from production, logistics, or maintenance who understands the value of the changes and allocates resources.

Using the example of companies operating under constraints, the speaker shows that top management involvement and flexible resource reallocation allow initiatives to be completed even when external factors change. The isolated work of the occupational safety department without the support of adjacent units most often leads to the formal execution of plans or their suspension.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to properly cascade the corporate LTIFR metric to the level of individual production sites?
• Why the Vision Zero (zero injuries) concept cannot be used as an annual quantitative KPI for managers?
• Which three proactive indicators are most applicable and effective for large industrial enterprises?
• How to use equipment downtime data to dialogue with the business about safety?
• Why the absence of fines from supervisory authorities is a dangerous and ineffective performance indicator for the HSE department?