Sometimes, good news stories do not get the attention they deserve. In the late spring of 2017, Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) released its annual statistical report for 2016.
Click here to access the 2016 WSIB statistical report.
Based on the data provided, the report confirms that lost-time injury rates for workers in Ontario have continued to fall. Conversely, this means that workplaces in Ontario increased their focus to ensure that workers are safe. The WSIB numbers reflect that focus accordingly.
This information received very little media attention. There was a brief article posted in OHS Canada Magazine outlining the relevance of the report and its impact on Ontario’s workers.
Click here to read the article.
Even though there was not much media fanfare about this report, the results are significant. Lower lost-time injury rates show that progressive and positive workplace safety measures are working. It also means that there is increased emphasis on ensuring that injured workers are able to return to work as quickly as they can through the pro-active supports provided by workplace accommodations such as physical interventions, graduated return procedures, modified work, and re-training as needed.
All of this information is available to the public in the aforementioned statistical report. In addition, the report is interactive and allows users to build their own reports based on their particular area of interest. For the Health and Safety professional, the report builder provides a great tool to use for purposes of benchmarking and assessing different injury categories or rates based on specific industries and relevant demographic data.
Why is this important? Data, translated into information, is the tool that tells the story that allows organizations to make decisions. In this case, the story that is told speaks to the importance of continuing progress and positive interventions to keep workers safe.
It is definitely a story worth re-telling.
Discussion Questions:
- Based on your current knowledge of your workplace, using the WSIB’s report builder, build a report based on two or three injury categories for workers meeting your age group (demographic filter) for lost-time injuries.
- Build a similar report to analyze traumatic fatalities.
- As the Health and Safety Officer, how can you use the report builder to convince leaders in your organization to shape or shift health and safety practices?
- What types of new information did you discover based on the reports that you built?