How To Calculate TRIR (Total Recordable Incident Rate) (2024)

What is TRIR?

Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) is a key workplace safety metric that measures the number of recordable incidents against the number of workers and total hours worked. It provides a snapshot of an organization’s health and safety performance over a one-year period.

In the US, OSHA closely monitors companies’ TRIR calculations. If an organization’s TRIR is above average, OSHA might perform surprise inspections which could even lead to penalties. Beyond OSHA, an organization’s TRIR can be useful to many parties. Insurance companies, potential employees, investors and customers can gather valuable insights from an organization’s TRIR.

Companies themselves can use TRIR calculations to evaluate and improve their health and safety management systems and strategies. While calculating TRIR is particularly useful for organizations in high-risk industries like agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, manufacturing, transportation and construction, companies in all industries can benefit from the metric.

How is TRIR calculated?

OSHA’s formula for calculating TRIR is as follows:

Total Recordable Incident Rate = Number of Recordable Incidents x 200,000 / Total Number of Employee Hours Worked in 1 Year

Before calculating your organization’s TRIR, it’s important to understand the specifics of OSHA’s formula. We’ve broken down each of the functions below:

1. Number of Recordable IncidentsA recordable incident is any incident that must be recorded and maintained by an employer for five years. These include incidents that result in a fatality, a loss of consciousness, day(s) away from work, restricted work activity, job transfer, a diagnosed case of cancer or another chronic and irreversible disease, fractured bones, cracked teeth, punctured eardrums or medical treatment beyond first aid.
2. 200,000In OSHA’s formula, the number ‘200,000’ is based on the total number of hours 100 employees would work in a 40-hour work week over 50 weeks.
3. Total Number of Employee Hours Worked in 1 YearWhen you calculate your organization’s TRIR, remember to include hours worked by contractors and temporary employees, but don’t include vacation and leave hours.

Example!

If your organization recorded 3 incidents and 430,000 hours worked over the course of a year, your formula would look like this:

3 x 200,000 / 430,000 = 1.39.

Your TRIR for that year would be 1.39.

What’s a good TRIR?

A perfect TRIR is 0.0—no recordable incidents. But a ‘good’ TRIR is less than 3.0. While companies should always strive for zero incidents, a number near the average for your industry is generally considered a ‘good’ TRIR.

In high-risk industries, a TRIR of 3 or above can be common.

How do you maintain a low TRIR?

1. Focus on fostering a culture of safe operations.At Evotix, we prefer the term ‘safe operations’ over ‘safety culture.’ While ‘safety culture’ implies a culture of safety separate from a company’s overall business culture, ‘safe operations’ speaks to the symbiotic relationship between safety goals and business priorities.Working to engage your whole team in safety, including leadership, is the best way to foster a culture of safe operations.
2. Revise your safety processes.Reviewing your safety processes and procedures—like hazard and incident reporting, emergency evacuation procedures and risk assessment procedures—is a proactive step that can help to lower your company’s TRIR.Especially if your organization is at the ‘Compliant’ stage of the Health and Safety Maturity Model or lower and you’re aiming to move up, reviewing your safety processes to make sure they’re working for your organization can give you a boost.
3. Implement a software solution to streamline your health and safety management.More organizations than ever are leaving spreadsheets behind and adopting software solutions to help manage health and safety. With a software solution, it’s easier to keep track of safety metrics, drive engagement across your organization and train workers—and that’s just the beginning.

Calculating your organization’s TRIR is a great way to evaluate the effectiveness of your health and safety management. To learn more about lowering incident rates with proactive health and safety management, check out our blog, The Difference Between Proactive and Reactive Health & Safety Management.