Leading Safety Indicators2024-12-10T16:35:52-08:00

Leading Indicators That Empower Leaders and Drive Real Change

SmartTagIt enables a new class of metrics, delivering insights into system health, team performance, and cultural factors.

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Redefining Leading Indicators for Greater Impact

SmartTagIt is ushering in a new era of technology and data science for workplace incident prevention.

Using voice-to-text, audio, video, and even simple forms, workers share detailed observations revealing insights previously unimaginable—moving from tracking “what” happened to understand “why”.

This new class of indicators enables organizations to:

  • Minimize the risk of catastrophic or unplanned events
  • Amplify the impact of high-performing leaders
  • Tackle systemic challenges in culture, capacity, and leadership
  • Create a meaningful competitive advantage

A New Class of Indicators: Improving System Health, Capacity and Culture

With richer, context-driven data, you can move beyond surface-level metrics to truly understand the health of your safety system. SmartTagIt introduces a new class of indicators that provide deeper visibility into the drivers of performance, helping leaders assess trends and make decisions that lead to lasting improvements.

Engagement in safety systems often correlates with fewer incidents. Effective systems focus on both participation and its quality to drive lasting safety improvements.

Participation & Engagement

Meaningful participation is the foundation of any effective safety system. SmartTagIt enables leaders to identify barriers such as a lack of trust, unclear processes, or perceived lack of value. By addressing these barriers and fostering Trust, Ability, and Value (TAV), organizations can drive participation that generates reliable data and leads to improved outcomes.

Understanding Quality

More data does not necessarily mean better indicators—what matters is whether it’s driving real improvements. Are your observations uncovering genuine risks? Are conversations fostering safer outcomes? With industry benchmarks and frameworks like the Simple Seven, SmartTagIt evaluates the quality of your safety efforts, providing actionable insights into what’s working and what needs improvement. By measuring quality alongside participation, you can build a system that supports both accountability and proactive change.

Each green line shows an observer’s cumulative score over time, highlighting their rate of improvement as they engage.

Each dot represents a worksite, with clusters showing average conversation scores, highlighting top performers and at-risk locations.

Fixing the System

Safety isn’t about chasing individual hazards—it’s about addressing the systemic issues that allow them to persist. SmartTagIt helps leaders move past reactive approaches by identifying patterns, like consistently high STCKY observations, that highlight deeper, systemic problems. By analyzing these trends, organizations can prioritize efforts where they’ll have the greatest impact, fostering a proactive, sustainable safety culture.

Building a Culture of Trust, Ability, and Value

The most successful safety systems are built on Trust, Ability, and Value (TAV). Employees need to trust that leadership is committed to safety, have clear guidance and tools to participate effectively, and understand the value of their contributions. SmartTagIt helps organizations strengthen TAV by providing targeted tools and insights to build trust, simplify processes, and ensure participation matters. When TAV is strong, participation increases, data improves, and systemic issues can be addressed more effectively.

This chart proxies Trust, Ability, and Value (TAV) metrics, revealing patterns that help identify risks and drive proactive interventions.

Real Leaders, Real Impact

Adopted by thousands of new users every day, SmartTagIt is transforming how teams approach safety and performance. In just 12 weeks, 6 in 10 leaders report having more impactful conversations that drive measurable improvements.

Rafael Carbajal - Horizontal

“SmartTagIt helped us move from traditional, lagging metrics to truly actionable insights. It’s transformed how we identify risks and address them proactively.”

Rafael Carbajal, Pepper Construction

Manager, Construction Safety

“With SmartTagIt, we finally have a system that provides a clear baseline and benchmarks. It not only shows us where we stand but also helps us pinpoint exactly where we can improve. The insights we get are actionable and specific, allowing us to intelligently refine our planning and communication processes in ways we couldn’t before.”

Scott Sears, Walker Engineering

VP, Safety & Loss Control

Scott Sears - Horizontal
Brent Bowers - Horizontal

“We discovered gloves weren’t holding up in extreme heat. SmartTagIt surfaced this issue faster than traditional methods, enabling us to change vendors and prevent future incidents before they escalated.”

Brent Bowers, Cupertino Electric

Corporate Safety Manager

Frequently Asked Questions

What insights does the AI provide about safety culture?2024-12-01T08:43:05-08:00

SmartTagIt delivers actionable insights into organizational culture and safety system health by analyzing the quality of interactions, team dynamics, and the effectiveness of safety processes.

  1. Engagement Metrics: SmartTagIt tracks participation rates, contribution depth, and the inclusivity of conversations. High engagement levels indicate a culture where employees feel valued and empowered to share their perspectives, while gaps highlight areas needing attention.
  2. Quality of Communication: By analyzing the content of planning and safety conversations, SmartTagIt reveals how well teams are identifying hazards, discussing risks, and proposing solutions. Strong communication patterns reflect a healthy safety culture, while missed opportunities signal areas for improvement.
  3. Psychological Safety Indicators: SmartTagIt measures whether employees feel safe raising concerns or identifying risks. Trends in open communication and constructive feedback suggest a culture of trust, while avoidance behaviors may indicate fear or resistance.
  4. Systemic Trends and Recurring Risks: Through aggregated data, SmartTagIt identifies systemic issues within the safety system, such as recurring hazards, procedural gaps, or inconsistent adherence to safety protocols. This insight enables leaders to address root causes rather than symptoms.
  5. Leadership Effectiveness: SmartTagIt provides visibility into how leaders influence safety culture, such as how effectively they coach, listen, and address concerns. Patterns of positive leadership behaviors often correlate with stronger team collaboration and adherence to safety practices.
  6. Real-Time System Health Checks: By continuously monitoring the flow of observations, near-misses, and hazard reports, SmartTagIt acts as a barometer for the organization’s safety system. A steady stream of high-quality data indicates a proactive and engaged culture, while declines may signal disengagement or blind spots.
  7. Benchmarking and Trends Over Time: SmartTagIt tracks progress and benchmarks safety performance across teams, projects, or locations. This provides a clear picture of how culture and safety system health evolve, enabling targeted interventions and continuous improvement.

SmartTagIt turns everyday interactions into measurable insights, empowering organizations to strengthen their culture, improve their safety systems, and build a more resilient workforce.

How does this work for organizations with multiple sites? 2024-11-30T16:45:38-08:00

SmartTagIt is designed to seamlessly support organizations operating across multiple sites by ensuring consistency, transparency, scalability, and follow-up.

  1. Centralized Data Access: All observation data is stored in a secure, centralized platform, allowing leaders to access and analyze information from any site in real time. This provides a holistic view of safety trends and issues across the organization.

  2. Consistent Processes Across Locations: SmartTagIt standardizes the observation and follow-up process, ensuring that every site follows the same high-quality procedures. This consistency helps eliminate variability and ensures reliable data collection.

  3. Localized Insights with Global Oversight: While leadership can view company-wide trends, individual sites retain the ability to address localized hazards and tailor solutions to their unique circumstances. This balance ensures both adaptability and alignment with organizational goals.

  4. Scalability for Growth: SmartTagIt’s digital tools are built to scale effortlessly, making it easy to onboard new sites or expand usage as the organization grows. Training modules and templates can be shared across locations to ensure rapid adoption.

  5. Enhanced Communication Across Sites: SmartTagIt enables teams to share observations, insights, and best practices between sites, fostering collaboration and leveraging collective knowledge to improve safety performance company-wide.

  6. Tracking and Comparing Performance: With built-in analytics, SmartTagIt allows organizations to compare safety metrics across sites, identify top-performing locations, and target specific areas for improvement, driving consistent progress everywhere.

SmartTagIt ensures that organizations with multiple sites can maintain a unified approach to safety, while still addressing the unique challenges of each location, enabling both local and organizational-level improvements.

How quickly can I see results?2024-12-10T12:27:39-08:00

Many teams begin noticing improvements in engagement, communication, and planning quality within the first few weeks of using SmartTagIt. As the platform collects and analyzes data, you’ll gain actionable insights that drive immediate changes, such as better planning, reduced risks, and stronger team collaboration.

For most organizations, measurable results become evident within 30–90 days, including:

  1. Enhanced Compliance: More consistent and thorough safety processes, reducing gaps and ensuring adherence to standards.
  2. Reduced Incidents: Clearer hazard identification and proactive planning leading to fewer safety issues and near-misses.
  3. Higher Engagement: Improved participation, more balanced conversations, and greater alignment across teams, fostering a culture of accountability and care.
  4. Stronger Leadership Skills: Team leaders gain clearer insights into what drives high performance and are empowered with the tools to foster trust, respect, and collaboration.
  5. Improved Operational Efficiency: Insights into recurring risks and inefficiencies allow teams to streamline processes, saving time and resources.
  6. Cultural Shifts: As teams adopt better communication habits and focus on proactive planning, a stronger culture of safety and collaboration begins to take root.
  7. Increased Team Morale: Transparent feedback and recognition of successes create a positive feedback loop, boosting team morale and motivation.

The speed at which you achieve results depends on your organization’s level of engagement with the platform and its insights. Teams that actively embrace the tools and strategies provided often see faster and more significant improvements, creating momentum for sustained growth in safety, performance, and organizational culture.

With SmartTagIt, the results extend beyond metrics—they transform the way teams communicate, plan, and collaborate, creating a lasting impact on safety and overall organizational performance.

 

“The jobs are getting done faster, with less rework, and much safer. We started seeing those changes almost immediately after implementing it.”
— Heather Tarver, HSE Support Manager at Flintco

How is SmartTagIt different from other tools that track safety data?2024-12-04T17:50:44-08:00

SmartTagIt isn’t just a tool for tracking safety data—it’s a platform that transforms how organizations think about safety, engage their teams, and build systems that adapt and learn.

  1. Learning from Work-as-Done, Not Just Work-as-Planned: Many safety tools focus on enforcing pre-planned processes or checking compliance after the fact. SmartTagIt captures how work is actually performed in dynamic, high-risk environments, uncovering the real factors behind success or failure. This focus on work-as-done creates a deeper understanding of the systemic conditions shaping safety outcomes. 
  2. Emphasizing Psychological Safety: The foundation of SmartTagIt is trust. Workers feel safe sharing their observations and insights without fear of blame or reprisal. This openness fosters honest conversations about risks and hazards, ensuring the system captures the reality of what’s happening in the field. 
  3. Measuring Team Dynamics and Culture: Unlike traditional tools that focus solely on metrics, SmartTagIt evaluates how teams collaborate, communicate, and solve problems. By analyzing the quality of safety conversations, it provides insights into team dynamics, leadership effectiveness, and the psychological conditions that drive engagement. 
  4. Enhancing Hazard Recognition: SmartTagIt is designed to improve workers’ ability to identify and control high-energy hazards, helping teams move beyond generic checklists to more nuanced and actionable safety practices. This builds capacity for anticipating and mitigating risks, not just documenting them. 
  5. Creating a Feedback-Rich Environment: SmartTagIt closes the loop between observations and outcomes by providing real-time feedback and coaching. This continuous feedback loop supports learning and adaptation, ensuring the system evolves alongside the organization’s needs. 
  6. Dynamic Systems Thinking: Where many tools focus on static data collection, SmartTagIt integrates systemic insights. It connects patterns of behavior, communication quality, and safety outcomes, enabling leaders to address root causes and improve the broader socio-technical system. 
  7. Driving Proactive Change: Most safety tools are reactive, built to track what has already gone wrong. SmartTagIt emphasizes leading indicators and actionable insights, helping organizations address emerging risks before they escalate into incidents. 
  8. Scaling Trust and Value Across Distributed Teams: SmartTagIt is purpose-built for high-risk, distributed, and dynamic industries. Its flexibility and ease of use ensure that it works seamlessly across teams and sites, promoting a shared safety culture regardless of geographic or organizational complexity. 
  9. Not Just Data, But Meaningful Insights: Traditional tools generate volumes of data but often lack context. SmartTagIt transforms raw observations into actionable knowledge, highlighting trends, systemic issues, and opportunities for improvement. This ensures data drives meaningful decisions rather than becoming a reporting burden. 
  10. Fostering Organizational Learning: By capturing real-world interactions and team dynamics, SmartTagIt serves as a learning platform that helps organizations improve both safety and operational effectiveness. It turns safety practices into a foundation for resilience and adaptability. 

SmartTagIt stands apart because it is rooted in human interaction, systems thinking, and continuous improvement. It doesn’t just track safety—it creates safer, smarter, and more adaptive organizations by connecting people, processes, and insights in ways other tools cannot.

How does SmartTagIt help improve engagement with safety practices?2024-12-01T08:44:28-08:00

SmartTagIt improves engagement with safety practices by fostering trust, enhancing users’ abilities, and demonstrating the value of participation, all while addressing the realities of dynamic, high-risk environments.

  1. Creating Trust in the System: SmartTagIt builds trust by showing workers that their input leads to real change. It prioritizes psychological safety, ensuring workers feel confident raising concerns and sharing observations without fear of blame.

  2. Enhancing Ability to Recognize Hazards: SmartTagIt helps users improve their ability to identify high-energy hazards and understand the appropriate controls to mitigate them. By integrating hazard recognition training into daily safety practices, the platform makes hazard awareness a continuous learning process.

  3. Empowering End Users: FactorLab designed SmartTagIt with simplicity and usability in mind. The platform is intuitive, ensuring workers of all technical levels can easily engage with the system, document observations, and take ownership of safety efforts.

  4. Demonstrating the Value of Engagement: Workers see their contributions drive improvements in safety systems and operational processes. This visibility reinforces the importance of engagement and motivates continued participation by linking individual input to organizational outcomes.

  5. Tailored for High-Risk, Distributed Workforces: SmartTagIt addresses the unique challenges of industries with highly distributed teams and fast-paced environments. The platform seamlessly integrates into workflows, making safety practices practical and relevant even in complex, high-risk settings.

  6. Encouraging Proactive Contributions: By enabling real-time documentation of observations, near-misses, and hazards, SmartTagIt makes safety a dynamic and continuous process. Workers are encouraged to contribute actively, ensuring risks are addressed promptly.

  7. Recognizing and Rewarding Engagement: The platform acknowledges meaningful contributions, fostering a culture of recognition and collaboration. This motivates teams to stay involved and reinforces positive safety behaviors.

By embedding trust, enhancing hazard recognition abilities, and demonstrating value, SmartTagIt transforms safety practices into an engaging, meaningful, and impactful part of daily operations, empowering teams to create safer and more resilient workplaces.

Will SmartTagIt work for any industry and team size?2024-12-01T08:39:01-08:00

Yes, SmartTagIt is designed to be highly flexible and customizable, making it an ideal solution for organizations across industries and team sizes.

  1. Built for Any Industry: Whether you’re in construction, manufacturing, energy, logistics, or any other field, SmartTagIt’s tools adapt to the specific safety and operational challenges of your industry. Its customizable templates, workflows, and analytics ensure alignment with your unique requirements.

  2. Scalable for All Team Sizes: From small teams to global enterprises, SmartTagIt scales effortlessly to meet your needs. Its flexible pricing model and modular features ensure you can start small and expand as your team or organization grows.

  3. Customizable for Your Needs: SmartTagIt mirrors your existing safety systems, compliance standards, and incident prevention requirements. This customization ensures the platform integrates seamlessly into your workflows, regardless of team size or industry.

  4. Proven Across Diverse Environments: SmartTagIt has been successfully deployed in a wide range of sectors, from heavy construction to corporate safety teams, and by companies with a few dozen employees to those operating at a multinational scale.

  5. Adaptable to Evolving Needs: As your team or industry changes, SmartTagIt’s capabilities can evolve with you. Its modular design and integration with third-party systems ensure it remains a valuable tool as your organization grows and adapts.

SmartTagIt is a versatile solution that delivers value regardless of your industry or team size, empowering your organization to elevate safety and operational excellence.

How do we get notified about risks in real time?2024-12-01T08:37:37-08:00

SmartTagIt provides real-time risk notifications by combining dynamic data capture, instant communication tools, and automated alerts, ensuring that risks are identified and addressed promptly.

  1. Immediate Insight Sharing: Workers and supervisors record observations, near-misses, and hazards directly in the SmartTagIt platform via mobile or web applications. This ensures risks are documented as they arise, without delays or reliance on manual reporting processes. 
  2. Automated Notifications: When a potential risk is recorded, SmartTagIt instantly sends notifications to designated team members, such as site managers or safety leaders. These alerts ensure critical information reaches the right people at the right time. 
  3. Customized Alert/Follow Settings: Organizations can configure notification settings based on specific criteria, such as hazard severity, task type, or location. This customization ensures that notifications are relevant and actionable, preventing unnecessary noise. 
  4. Centralized Dashboard Access: Real-time data is accessible through a centralized dashboard, where leaders can monitor risks across sites, review observations, and prioritize follow-up actions. This ensures complete visibility into ongoing safety conditions. 
  5. Seamless Integration: For organizations using third-party tools, SmartTagIt’s REST API allows risks captured in the platform to sync with external systems, enabling comprehensive oversight across all operational tools. 

SmartTagIt transforms risk management into a proactive process, providing instant visibility and empowering teams to respond swiftly to evolving safety challenges.

How much does SmartTagIt cost?2024-12-01T08:47:44-08:00

Most organizations can start using SmartTagIt for $750 per month, an investment designed to unlock exponential value by reshaping how safety and operations are managed.

  1. Investing in Competitive Advantage: SmartTagIt isn’t just another expense—it’s a strategic investment in making your organization safer, more productive, and more resilient. For $750 per month, you’re not only reducing risks but also creating a foundation for sustainable operational excellence that sets you apart in your industry. 
  2. Risk-Free Exploration: Every new customer benefits from a 30-day money-back guarantee, allowing you to experience the platform’s transformative impact firsthand. This ensures that your investment is aligned with real outcomes and provides clarity on the value SmartTagIt delivers. 
  3. Custom Scalability for Strategic Growth: SmartTagIt’s pricing is designed to scale with your needs, whether you’re operating at a single site or across a global network. This ensures that you only pay for the capabilities that directly enhance your organization’s performance, maximizing ROI at every stage. 
  4. Compounding Benefits: By investing in SmartTagIt, you’re not just solving today’s safety challenges—you’re building a system that continuously improves, identifies inefficiencies, and enhances team collaboration. Over time, these advantages multiply, creating long-term strategic value. 

In today’s competitive landscape, organizations that invest in innovative, data-driven platforms like SmartTagIt gain an edge by transforming safety from a cost center into a core driver of operational success and differentiation.

How does SmartTagIt collect data?2024-12-04T17:51:55-08:00

SmartTagIt collects data through a robust, multi-channel system designed to capture high-quality, actionable insights tailored to each organization’s safety and operational needs.

  1. Native Mobile and Web Applications: SmartTagIt offers customized iOS, Android, and web-based applications that mirror each customer’s specific safety systems, compliance standards, and incident prevention protocols. This customization ensures the data collection process aligns seamlessly with the organization’s goals.
  2. Video and Digital Recording: Workers and supervisors record safety observations, task analyses, and planning conversations directly in the app. These video and digital submissions capture rich, contextual data, providing deeper insights into team dynamics, task execution, and workplace conditions.
  3. Real-Time, On-Site Data Capture: With mobile and tablet accessibility, SmartTagIt enables real-time data collection directly from the field. This ensures that inputs reflect actual, on-the-ground conditions rather than retrospective estimates or assumptions.
  4. Task-Specific and Flexible Inputs: The platform supports structured data entry for task details, hazards, and planned controls while remaining flexible enough to adapt to site-specific or project-specific conditions.
  5. REST API Integration: For organizations using additional third-party safety, incident, or project management applications, SmartTagIt includes a REST API for ingesting and consolidating external data. This integration creates a unified data ecosystem, enhancing consistency and usability across systems.
  6. Continuous Feedback and Observations: Workers can submit near-misses, observations, and other feedback on an ongoing basis, creating a dynamic, up-to-date stream of information that reflects evolving operational realities.
  7. Secure and Centralized Storage: All data is securely stored on a centralized platform, allowing leaders and teams to access it easily while maintaining strict data integrity and privacy standards.

By leveraging the SmartTagIt suite of applications, real-time tools, and seamless integration capabilities, SmartTagIt ensures that organizations can collect, consolidate, and act on data that truly drives safety and performance improvements.

How does SmartTagIt measure culture and team dynamics?2024-12-04T17:56:39-08:00

SmartTagIt assesses culture and team dynamics by turning everyday interactions into opportunities to understand, adapt, and strengthen relationships, creating measurable insights into how teams function and improve.

  1. Making Work Visible: SmartTagIt captures how teams perform work in real-world conditions, not just how it is planned. By analyzing conversations and actions, it reveals the shared mental models, norms, and values that shape a team’s dynamics and culture.
  2. Focusing on Team Interactions: By examining the flow of information—who speaks, who listens, and how feedback is shared—SmartTagIt provides a nuanced view of team collaboration. This aligns with research showing that communication patterns are among the most predictive indicators of team effectiveness.
  3. Creating Psychological Safety: A key component of strong team dynamics is psychological safety, where individuals feel free to express concerns or share ideas without fear of reprisal. SmartTagIt tracks how open and inclusive conversations are, offering insights into whether teams feel empowered to address issues honestly.
  4. Measuring Engagement and Influence: Beyond mere participation, SmartTagIt evaluates the depth and authenticity of engagement. It identifies whether team members are not only contributing but also influencing outcomes, indicating a culture where input is valued and acted upon.
  5. Providing Feedback Loops for Learning: Effective culture isn’t static—it evolves through reflection and adjustment. SmartTagIt creates feedback loops by linking team behaviors to outcomes, helping organizations learn how team dynamics contribute to performance and safety.
  6. Revealing Systemic Patterns: Culture is not just an aggregate of individual behaviors. Culture is shaped by systemic forces, such as leadership practices, organizational norms, and structural incentives. SmartTagIt’s data analytics reveal these broader patterns, enabling leaders to address systemic barriers and foster better alignment across teams.
  7. Building Adaptive Capacity: A strong culture can adapt to challenges and uncertainty. SmartTagIt helps organizations measure and improve their adaptability by tracking how teams respond to emerging risks and evolving priorities, emphasizing resilience and continuous learning.

By measuring the real-time interactions and systemic factors that shape culture and team dynamics, SmartTagIt empowers organizations to move beyond surface-level assessments and drive meaningful, sustainable improvement in collaboration, trust, and performance.

How does SmartTagIt make leading indicators more actionable?2024-12-01T08:27:47-08:00

SmartTagIt turns leading indicators into tools for learning, adapting, and improving by focusing on human engagement, systemic insights, and proactive responses.

  1. Understanding Work-as-Done: SmartTagIt captures insights directly from those closest to the work, focusing on how tasks are actually performed rather than how they were planned. This emphasis on real-world conditions helps uncover the underlying factors influencing safety and performance, making data more relevant and actionable.
  2. Creating Psychological Safety: SmartTagIt fosters an environment where workers feel comfortable sharing observations and insights without fear of blame or reprisal. This openness ensures that leading indicators reflect authentic input and that critical issues are identified and addressed early.
  3. Encouraging Systems Thinking: By linking observations to broader trends and patterns, SmartTagIt helps organizations view leading indicators as part of an interconnected system. This enables leaders to identify root causes, rather than treating symptoms, and implement changes that improve the system as a whole.
  4. Promoting a Feedback-Rich Environment: SmartTagIt provides real-time feedback loops that close the gap between identifying issues and taking action. Leaders and teams can respond to observations quickly, reinforcing positive behaviors and addressing risks before they escalate.
  5. Embedding Continuous Learning: By turning every observation into a learning opportunity, SmartTagIt transforms leading indicators into catalysts for growth and resilience. This focus on shared learning encourages teams to adapt dynamically to changing conditions and improve collectively.
  6. Building Trust and Ownership: SmartTagIt emphasizes collaboration across all levels of the organization, empowering workers to contribute meaningfully and see their input driving change. This strengthens commitment to the process and ensures that improvements are sustainable. 

SmartTagIt doesn’t just collect data—it creates a culture where leading indicators drive meaningful action, foster trust, and enhance the organization’s ability to adapt and thrive in the face of challenges.

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