Occupational Health and Safety Scorecards : New leading indicators improve risk management and regulatory compliance

Abstract : While it has been established for many years that the management of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) is carried out by means of Management Systems, the question of how to measure the performance and the control of these systems is still current. The first part of the article addresses the issue of the traditional indicators identified in the literature. Once defined, their contribution and limitations are discussed. Next, the general concept of Balanced Scorecards is described, along with a survey of the work that has been carried out in the OHS domain. Finally, an example from the aeronautic and aerospace industry is used to illustrate the Balanced Scorecards model. It integrates leading management indicators for two particularly interesting sub-processes of a Management System; namely, the supervision of regulatory compliance and risk management.