Development of Lead Indicators to Reduce Injury in Australian Agriculture: Protocol for a Modified Delphi Study

Agriculture remains one of the most hazardous industries in Australia, with consistently high rates of workplace injury and fatality. Traditional approaches to monitoring safety performance in agriculture have largely relied on reactive lag indicators, metrics that capture incidents after they occur, such as injury rates, compensation claims, or fatalities. While useful for identifying trends and measuring past performance, there is a need for proactive lead indicators, and these are preventive measures that identify risk and promote safer practices before injuries occur. With limited research available on leading indicators specific to the agricultural industry, the modified Delphi method has been identified and designed for this study. A panel of experts will be engaged with the aim to achieve consensus on a set of valid lead indicators for Australian agriculture. This study will include four rounds of Delphi questionnaires with the addition of a face-to-face consensus conference to be included in round four. The data gathered in this study to identify Work Health and Safety (WHS) leading indicators has potential to improve farmers’ safety, wellbeing, and personal health, as well as reducing injuries and fatalities across the Australian agricultural industry.