Lead vs lag indicator
Lead indicators measure activities that prevent harm (inspections completed, training delivered, near-miss reports closed-out, hazard-register reviews). Lag indicators measure harm after it occurred (TRIFR, LTIFR, days lost). A mature WHSMS uses both, weighted toward lead because lag is reactive.
Legal context
For decades WHS measurement defaulted to lag indicators — TRIFR (Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate), LTIFR (Lost-Time Injury Frequency Rate), MTIFR — but lag indicators only tell you what already happened. Lead indicators measure the precursor activities that prevent harm: percentage of scheduled inspections completed on time, training-matrix gap percentage, near-miss reports per worker per month, time-to-close on corrective actions, percentage of CAPA actions verified-effective, percentage of officers attesting on schedule. ISO 45001 Clause 9.1 (monitoring, measurement, analysis and performance evaluation) anticipates both types, and the Code of Practice on managing psychosocial hazards explicitly calls for lead indicators in psychosocial risk monitoring.
Where this shows up in RAE IQ
Related terms
ISO 45001
ISO 45001:2018 is the international standard for occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS). It uses the Annex SL high-level structure shared with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, organised around Plan-Do-Check-Act and 10 clauses from context (4) through improvement (10).
Management review
A management review is the formal periodic (typically annual) review by top management of the WHSMS to ensure its continuing suitability, adequacy and effectiveness. ISO 45001 Cl 9.3 specifies 10 mandatory inputs and 5 mandatory outputs.
Audit programme
An audit programme is the planned schedule of internal audits across a WHSMS for a defined cycle (typically annual). ISO 45001 Clause 9.2 requires the audit programme to plan, establish, implement and maintain an audit programme — coverage of every clause across the cycle, by competent auditors, with findings driving CAPA.
Platform pillars
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47 WHS and HSWA terms with legal context, FAQs and regulator references.