Question

How can predictive analytics improve workplace health and safety?

Answer
By Adrian Bartha | Last updated: February 5, 2023
Presented by eCompliance.com

The need to operate safely is fundamental to the success of any organization. Failure to operate safely can have severe negative impacts on an organization’s finances, regulatory compliance, brand, and reputation.

(See Connecting the Dots: Safety and Profitability to learn more)

Thankfully, the application of statistical methods across multiple disparate data sources now provides organizations with the insights needed to understand the root causes of workplace accidents – causes that were previously obscure and poorly understood. By arming companies with relevant data, predictive modelling techniques allows them to more effectively address occupational health and safety issues.

The predictive analytic process illustrates how predictive modeling techniques can improve workplace health and safety. It is a six-phase approach, which guides the gathering and creation of solid, objective, data-driven evidence.

These six phases are:

1. Business Understanding

This phase involves understanding project objectives and requirements from a business perspective. That is, identifying the health and safety challenges faced by the organization, as well as the approach to integrate the insights from the project into the business operations. This requires, then, setting up an analytics plan to achieve the

Advertisement
desired workplace health and safety outcomes.

2. Data Understanding

This phase involves the collection of data from safety claims, incidents and observations, HR information, the worksite, and so on. In this phase, the quality of the data is also assessed.

3. Data Preparation

During this phase data gathered from the organization is integrated and manipulated with other external data sources (for example, data from regulatory bodies like OSHA) to create an integrated data set for analysis.

4. Modelling

During this phase, various predictive analytical modelling techniques are chosen and applied in order to determine relevant relationships between safety outcomes and operational metrics. By doing so, companies obtain insights into where accidents are most likely to happen and under what circumstances.

5. Evaluation

In this phase, the insights obtained are evaluated and validated in the context of the issue being address (in this case, workplace health and safety). The analytical findings gathered are then presented to the organization for review by a team of safety professionals and company leaders.

6. Deployment

The final phase involves organizing, presenting, and delivering the knowledge obtained in a manner that allows safety professionals and company leaders to use it to improve workplace health and safety outcomes.

Presented By

Logo for eCompliance.com

Share this

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • X

Written by Adrian Bartha | Chief Executive Officer

Adrian Bartha
Adrian Bartha is the CEO of eCompliance, which he joined in 2012 after experiencing first-hand how a workplace incident affected a power and utilities company which he led as a member of the Board of Directors. Previously, Adrian was an investment professional for a $5 billion dollar private equity firm investing in energy, construction, and transportation infrastructure companies across North America. When Adrian is out of the office, he can be found riding his futuristic motorcycle and wearing his RoboCop helmet.

More Q&As from our experts

Term of the Day

Edge Effects

Edge effects are defined in ecology as the influence that two ecological communities have on one another where they meet at…
Read Full Term

Let's Make Workplaces Safer!

Subscribe to the Safeopedia newsletter to stay on top of current industry trends and up-to-date know-how from subject matter authorities. Our comprehensive online resources are dedicated to safety professionals and decision makers like you.

Resources
Go back to top