Search OSSA Site for:

OSSA Support Line:
1-888-478-OSSA (6772)

• Products
• Services
• Resources
• Community

Measuring Health and Safety Through Performance Appraisals

For many organizations, appraising an employee’s performance involves measuring the level at which employees are achieving both their own personal goals and the company’s expected performance standards.

This process is often referred to as the performance appraisal process but is also known as performance evaluation, performance review and employee evaluation. And while there are a wide variety of performance appraisal systems to choose from, consideration is not always given to the value of integrating health and safety into the appraisal.

Why is that so important? Integrating health and safety into a performance appraisal system provides management with a unique opportunity to tie the employee’s accountabilities and achievements to the company’s objectives and strategic plans. Most importantly, if an organization begins to integrate health and safety into job descriptions, policies, procedures and organizational standards, they begin to communicate consistently the type of behavior they are looking for.

Other ways in which an integrated performance appraisal process can be used to aid an organization include:

• Communicating information to employees on how well they are meeting the health and safety performance expectations of their jobs.
• Identifying areas for coaching to help employees improve their health and safety performance and develop safe work practices.
• Providing opportunities to further communicate the organization’s health and safety performance expectations.
• Supporting the organizational succession plan.
• Providing feedback to the organization about its recruitment and selection process as well as its integrated health and safety training/development program. The performance appraisal may also provide feedback about the employee’s perceptions of the company’s health and safety performance and standards.

^ top of page

For example, employees need to know that meeting the health and safety expectations of a job requires them to:

• report hazards or hazardous conditions to their supervisor
• work in a safe manner at all times by using appropriate protective gear and controls on equipment
• follow company policies and procedures
• wear personal protective equipment as instructed
• participate in health and safety initiatives (e.g. ergonomic assessment, hygiene testing etc.)

Supervisors, on the other hand, need to know that meeting the health and safety expectations of a job requires the ability to:

• coach employees on safe work practices
• enforce company policies and procedure
s
• act as a positive role model for staff with respect to safe work practices
• support any staff who are members of the joint health and safety committee
• be aware of their legal requirements under the Occupational Health and Safety Act
• review new jobs/tasks/processes/equipment for safety concerns
• follow-up on reported concerns in a timely fashion
• encourage employee input into safety-related concerns and solution-finding processes
• discipline staff when required for failure to follow safety procedures

A performance appraisal system should clearly quantify the health and safety areas being monitored and should provide qualitative feedback on employee health and safety performance. When these policies and standards are measured, the organization will have a true assessment of its overall success - including health and safety performance.

How Integrated is Health and Safety into Your Performance Appraisal Process?

1. How is employee performance evaluated on a regular basis?
2. Does the appraisal system (verbal or written) include questions and observations about an employee’s safe behavior? Specifically, does the company consider if an employee is:

reporting hazards or hazardous conditions to their supervisor? working in a safe manner at all times by using appropriate protective gear and controls on equipment? following company policies and procedures? wearing personal protective equipment as instructed? participating in health and safety initiatives (e.g. ergonomic assessment, hygiene testing etc.)?

3. If a rating scale for performance is used, do supervisors know the criteria established for the scale with respect to safe behavior? (e.g. An employee meeting expectations would be reporting hazards, wearing PPE etc.)
4. Does the performance appraisal system evaluate the supervisor’s effectiveness in managing health and safety issues in their department or area of responsibility? Have specific criteria been established for minimum health and safety standards? Are these criteria included in the appraisal evaluation as an expectation for the supervisor/manager?
5. Does the appraisal system positively reinforce business issues such as customer service (i.e. Is it rewardsbased?)? If yes, is safe behavior also reinforced in a positive manner?

Excerpted from The Safety Mosaic, Vol. 7, # 3, Fall 2004

^ top of page