Driving safety excellence: A multifaceted analysis of leading indicators across industries

• Collation of safety leading indicators employed across high-risk industries. • Analysis of the complex interactions between safety leading indicators across diverse industries. • Identification of practical implications of safety leading indicators. Several studies have examined Safety Leading Indicators (SLIs) and their impact on safety performance in diverse industries. However, no study has comprehensively synthesised these findings across industries to offer a holistic perspective. This lack of integration impedes safety professionals from effectively implementing critical SLIs and adopting measures to enhance safety performance universally. To fill this gap, this study employs a comprehensive hybrid methodological approach, including a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), a questionnaire survey, and expert interviews. Using the SLR undertaken, 67 SLIs impacting safety performance across industries were identified. Analysis of the survey data from safety experts revealed that “training and education”, “incident investigation and analysis”, and “safety observation” were seen to be the top three critical SLIs. These results were further validated using the expert interviews. Additionally, findings from the interviews revealed that “safety performance improvement” and “establishing effective measurement methods” were, respectively, the most crucial drivers and barriers to SLI adoption across industries. The outcomes of this study provide safety professionals with the vital areas to focus on, improving the effectiveness of safety performance enhancement in diverse industries.