Kickoff 2026: Moving Beyond "Zero Accidents" Goals

"Our goal for 2026 is Zero Accidents."

It sounds noble. It looks good on a banner. But as a safety strategy, it is often counterproductive. When you tie bonuses or pizza parties to "0 Recordables," you don't stop people from getting hurt. You stop them from telling you they got hurt. You drive the reporting underground, where minor cuts become infections and minor strains become career-ending surgeries.

This year, flip the script. Stop measuring failure (lagging indicators) and start measuring prevention (leading indicators).

The Problem with Lagging Indicators

TRIR (Total Recordable Incident Rate) and DART (Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred) are lagging indicators. They tell you what happened last month. Driving your safety program by looking at TRIR is like driving a car by looking at the odometer. It tells you how far you went, but not where the cliff is.

Leading Indicators: The Metric of Action

Leading indicators measure the activity of safety. They are proactive. If you hit these goals, the accidents (usually) go down on their own.

Here are three leading indicator goals to set for 2026:

1. Near Miss Reporting Rate

Set a goal for more reports, not fewer. "We want 50 near miss reports this quarter." Why? Because a near miss is a free lesson. It’s a hazard identified without blood. If you get 50 reports, that’s 50 traps you can disarm. If you get 0 reports, your people are either asleep or afraid to speak up.

2. Safety Audit Completion %

"We will complete 95% of scheduled safety inspections on time." This measures discipline. Are supervisors actually doing the weekly walkthroughs? Are the forklift checklists actually being filled out?

3. Hazard Correction Time

"We will close 80% of identified safety work orders within 14 days." This measures trust. If a worker reports a broken guardrail and it stays broken for six months, they will never report anything again. If you fix it in three days, you build credibility.

Changing the Incentive

Instead of a pizza party for "90 Days Injury Free," throw a pizza party for "100 Hazards Found and Fixed." Reward the person who reports the unsafe condition, not the team that stays silent.

The Conversation Shift

When you sit down for your first safety committee meeting of 2026, put the leading indicators at the top of the agenda.

• Old Way: "We had 2 injuries last month. That's bad."
• New Way: "We found 15 hazards last month and fixed 12 of them. That's good. But we missed 3 inspections. Let's fix that."

This shifts the culture from blame ("Who got hurt?") to ownership ("What did we fix?"). It makes safety something you do, not just something you hope for.

Next step: Configure your custom Leading Indicator Dashboard in Worksafely SMB to track audits and hazard closures.