How to Calculate Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR)

Total Recordable Incident Rate, also Known as TRIR metrics, is a common term used among organizations that invest in workplace safety management and prevention. It measures the number of workplace recordable incidents and severe injuries that require emergency care.

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) promoted TRIR by comparing safety among organizations where workplace injuries are common. Like DART, TRIR plays a huge role in organizational safety, growth, and reputation. This article explores how to calculate TRIR, why it is needed, and effective measures to maintain the recommended TRIR rates for your organization.

What Is TRIR, and Why Does It Matter to Your Business?

In the United States, OSHA strictly supervises companies’ workplace safety measures, especially in construction and heavy-duty equipment sectors. TRIR metrics evaluate the frequency of recordable incidents. Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) is a crucial workplace safety metric that measures the number of recordable incidents over one year against the number of workers and total hours worked.

Many organizations also calculate TRIR internally to understand their safety performance and take required measures. It is noteworthy that TRIR does not include minor injuries or health hazards that are terrible on the spot. It goes beyond them and calculates injuries that lead to ER visits and lead to the following results:

Days away from work
Restricted work or long-term treatment
Fatal injuries or death
ER visits
Severe illnesses diagnosed by a professional

If an organization’s total recordable incident rate (TRIR) is above the industry average, OSHA might conduct surprise inspections, which could result in penalties.

Third parties are also involved in the TRIR metrics. An insurance company will evaluate your TRIR data to decide the premiums. The higher your TRIR, the more you will pay the insurance company. In addition, a high TRIR indicates a company’s lack of interest in employee well-being. This could lead to poor talent sourcing and productivity.

Your organization’s business could also be affected. Companies with lesser TRIR data are usually preferred as they are focused on safety and reputation building rather than just operating.

How to Calculate Total Recordable Incident Rate?

Here is how you can calculate TRIR:

Formula

TRIR = (Total Recordable Incidents / Total Hours Worked) x 200,000

The metrics are calculated by dividing the total recordable incidents by the total working hours in a specific period and multiplying them by 200,000.

For example, if a company had 14 recordable incidents and 400,000 hours worked in a year, its TRIR would be:

TRIR = (14 / 400,000) x 200,000

TRIR = 7

This means the company had 7 recordable incidents per 100 full-time employees yearly.

To understand this better, here are the elements of the TRIR calculation formula:

The Number of Recordable Incidents: It’s crucial to note that these incidents include fatalities, loss of consciousness, days away from work, restricted work activity, job transfers, diagnosed cases of chronic and irreversible diseases, fractured bones, cracked teeth, punctured eardrums, or medical treatment beyond first aid. An employer must record and maintain these incidents for five years.
20000: In OSHA’s procedure, the number ‘200,000’ indicates the total hours 100 employees would work in a 40-hour work week over 50 weeks.

When estimating the total number of hours functioned for your employees, you must eliminate all vacation hours and employee leave as these were not actual hours worked.

Tips for Lowering Your TRIR Rate

Improving TRIR needs a systematic approach. Here are some tips and strategies for lowering TRIR and improving workplace safety:

1. Promote a Safety Culture

Whether for a construction site or any job, the work culture at your organization makes a huge difference in the well-being of the employees. Take a safety-first approach at your workplace by promoting safe working habits such as wearing safety gear, having first-aid training, eliminating hazardous objects, and moving any object that may lead to injury while working. Have an on-site supervisor to monitor and improve safety measures and performance.

2. Effectively Investigate Incident

Authentic documentation is the critical component of improving your TRIR metrics. When an incident occurs, you must have a process to accurately investigate it with the help of your employees, whether the manager, frontline workers, or other staff. This means developing an investigation and documentation policy where you record every detail of an incident to keep it handy and up to date.

3. Implement a Solid Injury Prevention Program

Companies implementing injury prevention systems in their organization have witnessed reduced TRIR in recent years. Injury prevention services provide services like remote triage and pre-clinical injury prevention and management to immediately address the risk associated with injuries and accidents.

When injured workers enter the medical system, they get appropriate injury-related care, which minimizes medical risk that could lead to a higher TRIR rate. In addition, injury prevention partners also help with predefined roles for individuals based on clinical assessments and medical reports. This way, accidents, illnesses, and injuries can be effectively reduced.

4. Train Your Employees with a Safety Engagement System

Safety engagement refers to active participation and commitment to maintain and improve workplace safety. This innovative system involves advanced technologies, proactive strategies, and a system for managing workplace injuries. Engaged workers carefully adhere to safety rules, which reduces occupational injuries. Their hazard identification and reporting enable quick actions, promote peer accountability, and minimize injury risks.

WorkPartners’ remote triage services and modONE™ display how quickly medical help and documentation can enhance safety and lower injury costs.

Timely incident reporting is required, and the system includes a user-friendly platform for reporting injuries or near misses. This allows quick action and detailed analysis.

5. Review and Correction

Lastly, when an incident happens, you must record it for future training and reference so that your team can learn from it and prevent such incidents. Understanding the necessary measures can prevent fatal injuries and increase the TRIR rate.

Let Workpartners Help You Lower Your TRIR Rate with Injury Prevention and Safety Management System

Now that you know how to calculate TRIR to understand your organization’s safety performance, you must develop an injury prevention system that experts handle. Preventing recordable incidents is more crucial than managing them. With medical guidance, safety engagement practices, and proper documentation, you can reduce the TRIR rate effectively,

We at WorkPartners ensure that you have an organized injury prevention and management system led by a medical professional using remote triage assistance. With our comprehensive injury prevention services and safety management platform, you can significantly lower the TRIR and DART rates, improving the productivity and well-being of your staff.