Overview
ISO/TS 24179:2020 - Human resource management - Occupational health and safety metrics - is an ISO Technical Specification (first edition 2020) that defines standardized metrics and reporting approaches for organizational occupational health, safety and well‑being. It expands the organizational health and safety cluster in ISO 30414:2018 and provides formulas, contextual guidance and interpretation considerations to create comparable internal and external reports for regulators, investors and other stakeholders.
Key topics and requirements
- Defined metrics for organizational health, safety and well‑being, including:
- Lost time for work‑related injuries, accidents and disease (hours/days and percentage of scheduled work time).
- Number of occupational accidents.
- Number of people killed due to work accidents (fatalities).
- Percentage of workers trained in health and safety.
- Comparable formulas and examples (e.g., percentage time lost = A = B/C × 100 where B = lost working time and C = expected working time).
- Reporting cadence and alignment - metrics should align with financial year or budgeting cycles and include point‑in‑time totals and comparisons (typical comparative period: 3–5 years).
- Workforce breakdowns - metrics should be reported by workforce categories (permanent, casual, contingent, outsourced) and other useful subsets (department, location, incident type, time of day).
- Contextual factors to consider when interpreting data: FTE changes, production shifts, organizational restructuring, cultural or social reporting trends, and economic factors.
- Predictive factors for forecasting and intervention planning: planned structural changes, acquisitions, legislative or sector developments, and workforce education.
Practical applications and intended users
ISO/TS 24179:2020 is practical for organizations seeking consistent, comparable occupational health and safety reporting and for users who need clear indicators to guide interventions and disclosure:
- Human Resources teams for human capital reporting and HR dashboards.
- Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) and risk managers for incident tracking, root‑cause analysis and prevention planning.
- Compliance, audit and sustainability teams for internal controls and external stakeholder reporting.
- Executive leadership and investors for transparent OHS performance metrics used in ESG and investor communications.
- Large organizations and SMEs - the specification notes which metrics are recommended for internal vs. external reporting and is adaptable to organization size.
Related standards
- ISO 30414:2018 - Guidelines for internal and external human capital reporting (core reference expanded by this TS).
- ISO 30400 - Human resource management - Vocabulary (normative reference used for terms and definitions).
ISO/TS 24179 helps organizations standardize OHS metrics for benchmarking, trend analysis, target setting and clearer communication with regulators, investors and internal stakeholders.
