Your Safety Metrics Are Improving. Serious Harm Isn’t

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If your safety metrics are improving, are your people actually safer? Or are you just getting better at measuring the wrong things?

In this episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, I’m joined by John Dony, CEO and co-founder of the What Works Institute, and Mike Swain, Technical Enablement Manager at Evotix, to unpack a stubborn problem hiding in plain sight: why serious injuries and fatalities remain frustratingly hard to reduce, even as traditional safety metrics appear to improve. In a world of tighter regulation, more fragile operating models, and rising scrutiny across global supply chains, this is a resilience issue, a risk issue, and very much a leadership issue.

We dig into why lagging indicators can create a false sense of control, and why better reporting can actually be a sign that the truth is finally surfacing. You’ll hear how Mike saw incident reporting jump by 800% after better systems were introduced, and why that was good news, not bad. We also break down why the classic safety triangle often fails to predict serious harm, especially in complex supply chains shaped by contractors, seasonal labour, handoffs, and fragmented accountability.

We also explore where AI, data, visibility, and governance genuinely add value, and where hype still outruns reality. You might be surprised to learn that one of the sharpest lines in the episode is John’s view that if organisations want AI to work, they need a time machine to go back and get their data right first.

🎙️ Listen now to hear how John Dony, What Works Institute, and Evotix are rethinking supply chain resilience, safety, risk, and data from the ground up.

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