Certificate of Recognition (COR) audit program

In brief

  • Occupational health and safety interventions, including regulatory approaches, programs, and management systems, are key strategies for reducing worker injury and illness.
  • Certificate of Recognition (COR) audit programs use voluntary audit-based certification as a way of recognizing or encouraging effective OHS practices. For example, COR programs may provide premium rebates to employers who meet certain occupational health and safety management benchmarks or who have implemented a return to work program for injured workers.
  • We conducted independent impact evaluations of the COR programs in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario to assess how participation has affected firms’ injury rates. All four evaluations found that certification is associated with lower injury rates. However, the strength of this association is dependent on context, such as firm, industry, certifying partner, and audit tool.
  • We conducted additional evaluations of (1) the COR audit tools, assessing the association between audit scores and firm injury rates in BC, Alberta, and Ontario; and (2) the Return to Work COR Program in BC.


Key findings

In BC
  • In BC, COR certification was associated with a greater reduction in the short-term disability, long-term disability or fatality (SLF) injury rate and serious injury rate for most industry sectors. This effect was greater in most recent years.
  • We also worked with the BC Construction Safety Alliance and WorkSafeBC to assess the measurement properties of the specific COR audit tool used in the BC construction sector and identify the elements of the audit that are most predictive of firm work injury rates, with the goal of improving the design, delivery, and effectiveness of the COR program.
  • Scores on the BC Construction Safety Alliance audit tool were high and there was little variation for some elements. A subset of audit elements, including workplace hazard assessment and control, training and communication, and investigations and reporting were associated with variation in the overall score and were strong predictors of firm injury rates. Additionally, we identified 21 sub-elements that collectively best predicted firm injury rates.
  • We also conducted an evaluation of WorkSafeBC’s Return to Work COR program, an additional certification that firms already holding COR certification could earn prior to 2012, and found that this additional certification does not appear to provide any additional benefit on disability duration (time to return to work after injury), compared to regular COR.
  • While the Return to Work COR program has been successful in encouraging firms to offer graduated or modified return to work to injured workers, modified return to work is becoming more common over time in all COR-certified firms, thus the effect of additional certification has diminished over time.

In Alberta
  • In Alberta, our findings were generally consistent with BC, with COR certification associated with a greater reduction in lost-time and disabling injury rates for most sectors, with the exception that SECOR (small COR) certification was not associated with any greater reduction, relative to the change in similar non-certified firms.
  • Lower overall audit scores were associated with higher injury rates.
  • There was no association between SECOR overall audit scores and injury rates.

In Saskatchewan
  • In Saskatchewan, our findings were consistent with BC and Alberta in showing that COR certification was associated with greater reductions in the time loss injury rate but the overall effect was primarily driven by firms certified by the Saskatchewan Construction Safety Association, particularly those certified in more recent years, that were small (less than 20 FTEs), and certified under the standard COR program, not SECOR.
In Ontario
  • In Ontario, our findings were consistent with the western provinces in showing that COR certification was associated with a greater reduction in lost time and high-impact injury rates but the effect was primarily driven by recently certified, large construction firms.
  • Firms with lower overall audit scores were associated with higher lost time and no lost time injury rates.

Listen to Chris McLeod describe the methodology we used in assessing how the COR™ program affected lost-time and high-impact injury rates in Ontario in the IHSA Safety Podcast. In this discussion, Paul Casey also shares what prompted Ontario’s Infrastructure Health and Safety Association (IHSA) to engage with PWHS.

Read about the results of our COR audit evaluations in BC and Alberta in the Institute for Work & Health At Work newsletter in Fall 2019.

Watch a slidecast of Chris McLeod presenting the results of our COR audit evaluations in BC and Alberta at the Institute for Work & Health Speaker Series in November 2019.

Watch an interview with Chris McLeod, filmed by the Journal of Commerce at the BC Road Builders and Heavy Construction Association Fall Conference 2015, on the results of the COR evaluation.


Related publications

What occupational health and safety management system components predict firm work injury rates in the BC construction industry?

Research brief. Full report available by request. Based on research presented in:
McLeod CB, Jones AM. British Columbia Construction Safety Alliance COR® Audit Tool: Predictive Validity Update. Final Report to WorkSafeBC and British Columbia Construction Safety Alliance. Vancouver, BC: Partnership for Work, Health and Safety, University of British Columbia; 2023.

An audit-based occupational health and safety recognition program: Is COR associated with lower firm-level injury rates in Ontario?

Research brief. Full report available by request. Based on research presented in:
Macpherson R, McLeod C. An impact evaluation of the Infrastructure Health and Safety Association Certificate of Recognition (COR™) program. Final Report to the Infrastructure Health and Safety Association and Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario. Vancouver, BC: Partnership for Work, Health and Safety, University of British Columbia; 2022.

An audit-based occupational health and safety recognition program: Is COR associated with lower firm-level injury rates in Saskatchewan?

Research brief. Full report available by request. Based on research presented in:
Macpherson R, Fan J, Peck H, McLeod C. Is COR associated with lower firm-level injury rates in Saskatchewan? Final Report to the Saskatchewan Workers’ Compensation Board. Vancouver, BC: Partnership for Work, Health and Safety, University of British Columbia; 2021.

Is the Return to Work Certificate of Recognition Program associated with improved outcomes?

Research brief. Full report available by request. Based on research presented in:
McLeod CB, McLeod KV, Tamburic L, Maas ET. Is the Return to Work Certificate of Recognition Program associated with improved outcomes? Final Report to WorkSafeBC; 2020.

Performance of the COR® audit in BC construction firms: Do higher scores predict lower injury rates?

Research brief. Full reports available by request. Based on research presented in:

McLeod C, Saffari N, Cliff R, Jones A. Assessment of the British Columbia Construction Safety Alliance Certificate of Recognition audit score measurement properties. Final Report to WorkSafeBC and the British Columbia Construction Safety Alliance; 2020.

McLeod C, Yousefi M, Jones A. (2020). What occupational health and safety management system components predict firm injury rates in the British Columbia construction industry? Assessing the predictive validity of the British Columbia Construction Safety Alliance’s Certificate of Recognition Audit Tool. Final Report to the British Columbia Construction Safety Alliance. Vancouver: Partnership for Work, Health and Safety; 2020.

An audit-based occupational health and safety recognition program: Does certification lead to lower firm work-injury rates in BC?

Research brief. Full report available by request.
Based on research presented in McLeod C, Quirke W, McLeod K, Aderounmu A. Evaluating the effect of an audit-based occupational health and safety recognition program on firm work-injury rates in British Columbia, Canada, 2003-2016: a matched difference-in-difference approach. Final Report to WorkSafeBC. Vancouver: Partnership for Work, Health and Safety; 2019.

An audit-based occupational health and safety recognition program: Is certification associated with lower firm work-injury rates in Alberta?

Research brief. Full report available by request.
Based on research presented in McLeod C, Macpherson R, Quirke W, Koehoorn M, Aderounmu A. Is COR associated with lower firm-level injury rates? An evaluation of the effect of an audit-based occupational health and safety recognition program on firm work-injury rates in Alberta, Canada. Final Report to Alberta Ministry of Labour. Vancouver: Partnership for Work, Health and Safety, University of BC.

An audit-based occupational health and safety recognition program: Is certification associated with lower firm work-injury rates?

Research brief. Full report available by request.
Based on research presented in McLeod C, Quirke W, Koehoorn M. Evaluation of the effect of an audit-based occupational health and safety recognition program on firm work-injury rates in British Columbia, Canada. Final Report to WorkSafeBC. Vancouver: Partnership for Work, Health and Safety; 2015.

Contact: Chris McLeod

a place of mind, The University of British Columbia

School of Population and Public Health
2206 East Mall,
Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Tel: 604-822-2772
Partnership for Work, Health and Safety
2206 East Mall,
Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3, Canada
Tel: 604-822-8544

Emergency Procedures | Accessibility | Contact UBC  | © Copyright The University of British Columbia