Done well, ergonomics metrics are a key component of a world-class ergonomics process. Done poorly, they can be a distraction to the team and kill morale. Following are a few lessons learned from the trenches.
The purpose of a metric isn’t the number
It might seem counterintuitive at first, but the metrics you choose aren’t necessarily about the numbers themselves. Every goal you set is going to be arbitrary in some way no matter how systematic you are in choosing it.
Rather than being about the number itself, the purpose of a metric is to achieve alignment on your team so you are all pulling toward the same goal. The metric you choose provides clarity. It says, “this is what we think is important and this is where we want to go”.
It also sets up the mechanism by which you can hold the team accountable. You’ve given clarity and direction, now it’s up to the team to align around that and get the job done. Sometimes the greatest value you get out of a metrics dashboard is when you miss your number and starting asking, “Why? Why didn’t we hit our number?” This is a chance for improving your process and creating even more alignment on your team.
Remember: Keep your metrics in perspective. You won’t hit your numbers every month. If you do, it’s likely a sign you aren’t being ambitious enough. So when you miss, take a deep breath and remember that it’s not just about the number. The purpose of your metrics dashboard is to align the team around the right activities that will lead to your desired outcomes and provide a mechanism for holding yourselves accountable.
Metrics create incentives and incentives are powerful
“Any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes.”
– Charles Goodhart
“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”
– Marilyn Strathern summarizing Goodhart’s Law
A word of caution: when you are setting your metrics, you are crafting a system with incentives and incentives are one of the most powerful forces in the world. As famous investor Charlie Munger said, “Show me the incentives and I will show you the outcome.”
When excessive pressure is placed on a single measure, it causes second-order effects that are purely detrimental, all in order to “hit the target”. This is a mental model known as Goodhart’s Law: the more a measure becomes a target, the more reasons people will find to game the system to achieve a satisfactory rating.
In other words, measures are a proxy for the thing you want. Focus too much on the proxy and you’ll lose focus of the thing you actually want and you’ll do things that actively prevent you from getting it. You end up working against yourself.
For example, let’s say that you want to be healthy so that you can feel better and enjoy more active time with your kids.
Your doctor tells you that you’re fifty pounds overweight and that you need to drop the weight to be healthier.
Then you learn that in order to lose weight, you’ll need to be in a calorie deficit.
You’re an ambitious person, so you set a measure of only consuming 1,200 calories a day. That will let you eat the same foods you enjoy (just less) and still lose weight! What a great plan.
You can probably tell what happens next. After consuming only 1,200 calories a day of cookies, beer, and pizza you have lost weight. It worked! You were successful! But you feel terrible. You have low energy, you feel even worse than you did before, and it’s even harder to keep up with the kids now.
What happened?
When the measure became the target, it ceased to be a good measure. You hit your measure by only eating 1,200 calories per day but you missed your actual target of feeling better and keeping up with the kids. You hit the wrong target, in other words.
Remember: Measures are a proxy for the thing you want and create a system of incentives that will guide your team’s actions. Do not let a single measure become the target, making it easy to game the system and ultimately make it harder to reach your objectives.
Metrics should guide you to your ideal state
One of the counters to Goodhart’s Law is to create a set of balanced metrics starting from the ideal state and working your way backwards, all the while keeping in mind the possible 2nd and 3rd order consequences of each metric you choose.
Going back to our example of striving to have more energy throughout the day, you can probably imagine a better set of metrics. You could rate your energy each day so you could track your actual desired state over time, directly measuring the thing you want. You could balance your calorie deficit goal with a certain intake of healthy fruits, vegetables, and water.
You get the picture. The idea is to start from the ideal state and work your way backwards, making sure you’re creating a system of incentives that guide actions toward that ideal state without leaving room for gaming the system.
Setting an injury reduction goal is a good place to start, but it shouldn’t stop there.
You want to lower the overall ergonomic risk profile at your worksite, so measure that.
In order to lower the risk profile you’ll need to make workplace improvements, so measure that.
In order to make workplace improvements you’ll have to plan workplace improvements, so measure that.
In order to plan workplace improvements you’ll have to conduct assessments to uncover improvement opportunities, so measure that.
Remember: Create a set of balanced metrics that lead you to the ideal state, all while keeping in mind possible negative externalities of the system of incentives you’re creating.
Further reading on ergonomics metrics and implementing an ergonomics process
For a deeper dive on choosing ergonomics metrics and implementing a sustainable ergonomics process, here are a few of the articles we’ve written on these topics recently:
- How to Get Started With Ergonomics
- How to Choose Short and Long Term Ergonomics Metrics
- How to Choose Your Ergonomic Assessment Tools
- How to Build Your Ergonomic Assessment Team
- How to Train Your Ergonomic Assessment Team
- How to Manage Your Ergonomics Data
You can also download our Ergonomics Planning Guide and Toolkit for guidance.
Make it easier on yourself
Need help creating an ergonomics metrics dashboard? We’d be happy to help you out. Schedule a demo of ErgoPlus Industrial, our cloud-based ergonomics software, to see how it makes tracking ergonomics metrics easier, more efficient, and sustainable.
