Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR)
A standardized measure of how many OSHA-recordable injuries and illnesses a company had per 100 full-time workers over a year, calculated with a fixed OSHA formula so companies of different sizes can be compared on the same scale.
Why it matters
TRIR is the number owners and general contractors actually check when deciding whether a company is safe enough to bid on their work: a high TRIR can disqualify a subcontractor from bidding entirely, regardless of how competitive their price is, which makes it a real business metric, not just a safety statistic.
On a real project
Two subcontractors bid on the same project with similar pricing, but the one with a TRIR well above the industry average gets screened out during prequalification before the owner even reviews the numbers.
Who this matters most to
A Safety Manager tracks TRIR closely because it's a direct reflection of their program's real-world effectiveness, not just a compliance paperwork exercise. A Human Resources Manager uses the same incident data for workers' compensation costs and insurance rate impacts, which touch the company's bottom line well beyond any individual claim.
Where this goes wrong
A company discourages workers from reporting minor injuries in order to keep its TRIR looking favorable for bidding purposes. The unreported pattern of near-injuries goes untracked, and a hazard that consistent reporting would have flagged early instead causes a more serious incident down the line.