Seven-year analysis shows decline in SIF incidents suggesting shift to focus on higher consequence event prevention

ISN, the global leader in contractor and supplier information management services, released its latest Serious Injury & Fatality (SIF) Insights White Paper, incorporating 2023 data into its expanded seven-year analysis with a focus on ASTM E2920-19's Level One Injury Recording criteria.

ISN’s White Paper examines recordable incidents from 2017 to 2023 identifying 19,900 potential SIF cases. The analysis reveals a 16% decrease in SIF cases from 2022 to 2023, the lowest total since 2017, suggesting a positive trend as industries focus on high-consequence event prevention and safety culture initiatives such as Human and Organizational Performance (HOP), an operational philosophy that shifts the focus from worker behavior to the processes designed to protect the worker.

Additional highlights from ISN’s White Paper include:

1. Workplace Injury Trend Analysis:
   1. Contact with objects or equipment remains the top incident category, accounting for 60% of injuries from 2017 to 2023. In 2023, 90% of amputations affected hands, fingers, or wrists, consistent with OSHA’s severe injury trends. These injuries are often linked to unguarded machinery and improper use of high-risk equipment.
2. Construction and Transportation Industries Face Heightened SIF Rates:
   1. Contractors in the construction industry experienced over 1,200 SIF cases in 2023, with 43 fatalities. Additionally, more than 1,000 SIF cases were reported in the transportation industry in 2023, with a 30% SIF rate increase from 2021 to 2023.
3. Mid-Size Companies Show Disproportionate SIF Rates:
   1. Smaller and mid-sized companies experience greater variability in safety performance, likely due to resource limitations, workforce turnover, and exposure to high-risk activities.

Mature safety organizations are looking deeper into their safety cultures and systems within their operations and implementing philosophies such as HOP to continue to reduce SIFs. By changing the cultural response to hazard assessments, near miss reporting, incident investigation, and other safety practices, organizations aim to create a collaborative learning environment to help drive SIF reduction.

“A strong safety culture is the foundation of an effective safety program and organizations need reliable insights to drive meaningful change,” said Marie Anderson, Chief Customer Success Officer and Head of Review and Verification Services (RAVS^®) at ISN. “With ISN’s CultureSight^® and RAVS 360™ assessments, ISN helps equip companies with data-driven insights to evaluate worker perceptions, pinpoint gaps, and implement proactive strategies, including HOP and other competency principles, to help reduce serious injuries and fatalities. By integrating leading indicators, ISNetworld helps hiring organizations gain a holistic picture of their health and safety ecosystems, empowering them to create environments of continuous learning to drive optimal safety outcomes.”

To request a copy of the Serious Injury & Fatality Insights White Paper, please visit ISN’s Publications page. To learn how ISN helps organizations build a strong safety culture, visit ISN’s Safety Culture page.

About ISN

ISN is the global leader in contractor and supplier information management, with more than 20 years of experience connecting 850 Hiring Clients in capital-intensive industries with 85,000 active contractors and suppliers to promote safety, health, and sustainability in the workplace. ISN’s brands include ISNetworld^®, a global online contractor and supplier management platform, Transparency-One^®, a responsible sourcing platform built to bring transparency to supply chain management, and Empower^®, a worker-level app built to keep workers moving forward.

ISN has 14 offices around the globe which provide award-winning support and training for its customers in more than 85 countries. ISN takes pride in leading worldwide efforts to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of contractor and supplier management systems and in serving as a world-class forum for sharing industry best practices, benchmarking performance, providing data insights among its members, and helping decision makers, including board members, ensure contractor and supplier risk is assessed and monitored. For more information, visit isn.com.

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