Do you operate in a heavy or high-risk industry like mining, construction, or oil and gas? Then you know how crucial it is to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and keep the total recordable incident rate low. Otherwise, your worksite’s safety can come under severe scrutiny and face hefty penalties. Your brand reputation might also take a beating. Moreover, a high number of recordable incidents can translate to frequent operational interruptions, increased business expenses, legal liabilities, and a weak bottom line.
It’s no surprise that employers are taking the total recordable incident rate (TRIR) seriously. In fact, in the U.S. private industry, total recordable cases per 100 full-time workers declined from 2.7 (2022) to 2.4 (2023). Let’s delve deeper into what TRIR is, how it’s measured, its importance in safety, and more.
Decoding Total Recordable Incident Rate
Every heavy industry comes with its fair share of risk. However, as a responsible employer, you must be vigilant about potential hazards and try to minimize injuries and ailments.
OSHA ensures you do that.
More precisely, TRIR, one of its standard metrics, measures the safety performance of an organization vis-à-vis others in the industry. For every 100 employees (full-time), TRIR indicates the frequency of recordable incidents on a yearly basis. This particular metric helps employers like you to assess safety performance regularly and track changes and trends over time.
Recordable incidents usually include:
- Medical treatment is not limited to first aid
- Illness or injury that leads to unconsciousness
- Restricted activities at work
- Incidents requiring days away from work
- Job transfers
- Punctured eardrums
- Cracked teeth or fractured bones
- Cancers or chronic diseases
- Fatalities
Also Read: What Are the 4 Workplace Safety Suggestions Recommended by OSHA?
Why Total Recordable Incident Rate Matters
A high total recordable incident rate (TRIR) signals an unsafe work environment and can attract OSHA’s attention. You might end up paying large fines. However, keeping your TRIR is much more than just a regulatory obligation.
Too many recordable incidents impact employee trust, productivity, and loyalty. The quality of work takes a hit. Absenteeism and attrition can also shoot up, or you might end up in legal hassles. Either way, it implies increased business costs.
High TRIR also means you have to spend more on workers’ compensation and insurance, which can affect your profit margin negatively. Tracking TRIR is also a smart way to spot where your safety measures are falling short and what you can do to improve the same.
Not only that, talent sourcing becomes a challenge. Potential employees won’t be able to trust you enough, or you might lose any negotiating power. Moreover, potential and existing clients might not be keen on doing business with you.
Just so you know, apart from TRIR, these are some other safety metrics (rates) that matter too:
- Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred (DART): It assesses the count of injuries and ailments that cause employees to go on leave, assume restricted duties, or get transferred.
- Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR): It is a measure of the number of injuries wherein workers cannot work for at least a day per 1 million hours. LTIFR offers insight into severe incidents leading to time lost.
- Severity: For every 100 workers (full-time), this rate gauges the number of days wasted owing to ailments and injuries. Put simply, it measures incidents’ impact.
- Near-Miss Reporting: As the term suggests, this rate measures the number of incidents that could have caused injuries but didn’t.
Total Recordable Incident Rate Calculation
Calculating total recordable incident rates is quite straightforward with the following formula devised by OSHA:
(Number of recordable incidents * 200,000) / Number of hours put in by all employees in a year
Why use the number 200,000? Well, it’s an OSHA benchmark indicating the number of hours worked by 100 employees when they log in for 50 weeks (40-hour work week).
- Note that you shouldn’t include leave and vacation hours when estimating total hours worked.
- Include the work hours of any employees who are sourced from a staffing agency, but only if your permanent employees direct their daily activities.
Here’s an example as well that will make your TRIR calculation easy. If the total number of hours worked is 425,000 and there are 4 recordable incidents in a year, your TRIR will be:
4 * 200,000 / 425,000 = 1.88
Alternatively, you can utilize one of the free, online total recordable incident rate calculators available for use.
What is a Decent Total Recordable Incident Rate?
The question doesn’t really have a single straightforward answer. While it goes without saying that you need to keep your TRIR as low as possible, different industries come with different hazards and risks. This means that the average incident rate varies across sectors.
For instance, as per 2023’s data points, the TRIR was 2.3 for the construction industry and 2.1 for mining. For manufacturing, it was 2.8. So, ideally, stay aware of your specific industry’s average and strive to maintain a lower TRIR.
Strategic Ways to Reduce Your Total Recordable Incident Rate
Lowering the total recordable incident rate (TRIR) will pave the way for a safer and more productive workplace. That’s not all. You will be able to better comply with OSHA, boost your company’s reputation, and strengthen the profit margin too. Here are some strategies to try:
- Detect Patterns and Causes: Look into past incidents so you can spot common trends and get a good grip on what caused them. Studying historical data will help you predict risky situations in the future and take necessary measures to prevent them.
- Consider Post-Offer Employment Testing (POET): This is a preventive measure wherein occupational healthcare professionals assess if the employees you hire are fit enough for their job roles. They verify that workers can perform essential physical tasks safely and efficiently, including pushing, pulling, carrying, lifting, and other similar activities. This testing helps you prevent injuries and make the workplace safer and more productive.
- Conduct Safety Trainings Regularly: Develop safety programs tailored to your industry and company, and ensure all employees are aware of best practices and how to identify hazards. Include interactive modules wherever possible and update the content periodically.
- Assess Risks and Hazards Regularly: To achieve this, fostering a top-to-bottom safety culture is essential. Instill the habit of prompt reporting among workers in hazardous situations or near-misses. Make sure the management is also ready to handle safety issues. They should allocate resources strategically to drive safety programs and be accountable for lapses. Also, ensure easy access to first aid kits that are specially equipped for the common injuries in your industry. Another smart idea is to use software that monitors and measures safety engagement and compliance with safety standards.
- Set and Meet Goals: Establish safety objectives that are SMART and track your company’s progress toward achieving them. This means that, in addition to being specific and measurable, the goals should also be attainable, relevant, and time-bound. You can tweak them periodically too.
- Avail Remote Doctor Triage: To keep the total recordable incident rate low, you must address workplace injuries promptly and provide on-site first aid whenever possible. Sending injured employees to the emergency room even when it’s not required can increase the number of recordables as well as healthcare costs. Utilize remote medical triage services, where a licensed, experienced doctor can assess the injury immediately via a video or phone call. They can provide first aid instructions, prescribe medications, and help injured workers recover and return to their duties efficiently.
Conclusion
To wrap up, calculating total recordable incident rates, tracking them, and taking steps to keep them low is crucial for every heavy industry employer. From workplace safety and employee morale and productivity to business continuity, regulatory compliance, and profitability, everything will witness an uptick this way.
You are also aware of how to reduce TRIR, from investigating past incidents and conducting safety trainings to setting safety goals and availing medical triage services.
Also Read: Comparing DART Rate and TRIR Rate: A Guide to Calculating DART Rate
Hence, while identifying hazards, fostering a culture of safety, and preventing common recordable incidents are important, having a contingency plan in place is crucial.
A reputed and reliable provider of injury prevention and medical case management services can help. This way, if an incident occurs, you can contact a licensed MD remotely at any time of the day. They will assess the injury and suggest whether a hospital visit is necessary or if first aid will do. In most cases, such occupational doctors assist you in resolving the issue on-site. By addressing the workers’ queries and concerns, they also provide mental support. Moreover, they closely monitor the recovery and ensure your employee can return to their usual routine in no time.
Keep Your Total Recordable Incident Rate Low with WorkPartners USA
At WorkPartners, we know how keeping TRIR low can boost your worksite’s safety, operational efficiency, and brand reputation. It also minimizes legal and healthcare costs, improves employee satisfaction, and reduces attrition.
We offer medical case management services led by experienced occupational physicians who handle workplace injuries from start to finish. From tailored treatment plans and the mental well-being of the affected worker to a speedy recovery, they manage it all. We also provide first aid kits specially designed for your industry, as well as massage therapies that comply with OSHA’s non-recordable rules. You can also leverage our POET services and the safety engagement software modONE™ as preventive measures.
Get in touch with us if you would like to learn more about total recordable incident rate and the best ways to lower it. We are available at (800) 359-5020 if you need early intervention for injuries. For other concerns, please call us at (651) 323-8654 or email us at info@workpartnersusa.com.
Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) is a metric provided by OSHA. It measures the frequency of recordable workplace incidents and injuries per 100 full-time employees in one year. TRIR is a useful indicator for employers since it helps assess safety performance and track any concerning trends. With TRIR, employers can also measure themselves up against others in the industry.
TRIR is calculated using this OSHA formula: (Number of recordable incidents × 200,000) ÷ Total hours worked by all employees in a year. Here, 200,000 represents the number of hours 100 full-time employees would generally work over 50 weeks. For example, if a company logs 425,000 total hours and has 4 recordable incidents, the TRIR would be (4 × 200,000) ÷ 425,000 = 1.88.
There’s no universal “good” TRIR since acceptable rates vary by industry. The key is to stay below your industry’s average. For example, the average TRIR for construction is and for manufacturing, it’s 2.7. Regardless of industry, the lower the TRIR, the better.
OSHA recordables are injuries or illnesses that necessitate medical treatment beyond basic first aid. They usually cause loss of consciousness and result in a restricted work routine, a job transfer, or days away from work. Some OSHA recordable incidents include cracked teeth, fractures, cancers, punctured eardrums, and fatalities.
Employers can bring down their TRIR with a systemized approach. It is advisable to take a good look at past incidents to identify patterns and root causes, conduct regular safety training that is relevant to the industry, perform routine risk assessments, set SMART safety goals, and monitor compliance (preferably with dedicated safety engagement software. Preventive measures like Post-Offer Employment Testing (POET) also help keep recordable incidents down.
A remote triage conducted by a doctor helps reduce TRIR by ensuring workplace injuries are assessed and treated promptly without automatically sending employees to an emergency room. Remote doctor triage is considered to be a step above remote nurse triage because when a licensed physician evaluates the injury via phone or video, they can often resolve it on-site through first aid instructions or medication, which they are legally empowered to prescribe. This prevents the incident from becoming a recordable case. This approach also supports the injured worker’s mental well-being and helps speed up their return to normal duties. A remote nurse will not be able to prescribe any medication but may still help with emergency case management.
