Companies that layer multiple contractor safety and risk management programs can substantially reduce serious injuries and fatalities, according to a white paper released Thursday by a company that manages supply chain risk.
The findings point to the value of using several safety controls together rather than relying on a single contractor screening or compliance measure, with Avetta identifying the layered approach as a best practice for managing contractor safety.
Avetta based its research on three years of data from 2022 through 2024 across more than 130,000 suppliers and found that strategically combining multiple risk management tools was associated with a 97.3% reduction in fatality rates, from 6.95 to 0.19.
Individual programs also produced improvements. Worksite scheduling and permission controls were associated with a 68.9% lower fatality rate, while prequalification was associated with a 34.7% reduction, worker management with a 22.5% reduction and safety audits with a 16.7% reduction.
The report also highlighted a shift toward measuring the severity of workplace injuries rather than simply counting incidents. Avetta developed a global severe injury rate to compare serious injuries across countries with different reporting requirements, defining a severe injury as one resulting in at least one lost workday.
Avetta cautioned that stronger safety programs can initially result in higher reported incident rates because better monitoring captures incidents that previously went unreported. Fatality rates can decline simultaneously, underscoring the importance of considering injury severity when evaluating contractor safety performance.
This article was first published by Business Insurance.
