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Reprint from Occupational Health & Safety Magazine–
Safety Incentives:
Myths and Realities The question we should be asking is: How can we capitalize on the motivational factors of incentives to more effectively market safety programs to employees? Do safety incentive programs work? This is a multimillion-dollar question when you consider the costs that unsafe practices can have for your organization. The simple answer is, it depends primarily on the focus of your safety program and secondarily on how well you implement your incentive program. Focus: Reactive or Proactive The problem with focusing on reducing accident rates by eliminating unsafe behaviors is it is reactive rather than proactive, e.g. once the problem is resolved and the accident rate goes back down, management tends to divert its focus and direct its resources toward other organizational issues. If the accident rate rises again - and it almost always does when the approach is reactive - management once again turns its attention to eliminating unsafe behaviors. Under these circumstances, the cycle will repeat again and again. Conversely, when "safety behavior" is the focus of the incentive program, a collaborative, problem-solving approach involving both management and employees is adopted to identify critical sets of safe and unsafe behaviors. This allows for the creation of incentives for the specific behaviors or sets of behaviors that prevent accidents from occurring in the first place. It significantly reduces the incidences of behaviors that lead to accidents. It also creates a culture of safety. There is considerable debates over whether or not safety incentives work. This is the wrong question. It is obvious that incentives do work. We all participate in incentive programs every day, some of which are more obvious than others. For example:
When Are Incentives Most Effective?
Onward and Upward, or…? When attempting to motivate people to change, there is a factor called the "10-80-10 rule":
The target of any incentive program should be the 80 percent. If you can successfully motivate this group, you will have 90 percent of your company involved in achieving your safety goals. Incentive programs should be designed to provide that level of motivation. The question we should be asking is: How can we capitalize on the motivational factors of incentives to more effectively market safety programs to employees? Myths & Mistakes Myth:
Success is determined by the amount of money you spend. Likewise, the safety officer is often tasked with the responsibility of figuring out how to use the money that was budgeted most effectively - with very little thought as to what behaviors actually lead to accidents. Myth:
Success depends upon the effectiveness of the incentive. Myth:
Rewarding employees for each month they work without a lost time
accident, or giving every employee a bonus if the company/department
goes an entire year with no recordable accidents, is a good practice.
Proactive programs, on the other hand, reward employees
based on activities, achievements, and/or behavioral changes that
result in increased safety awareness, identification and/or elimination
of risk factors, and resolution of specific safety issues. The advantage
of proactive programs are that they encourage maximum employee involvement,
have the potential to produce long-term safety culture and behavioral
changes, and do not encourage non-reporting of accidents. We have found proactive, points-based incentive programs to be the most cost-effective way to achieve safety goals. These are programs where participants earn points for various activities and achievements and accumulate them in an account to be redeemed at a later date for reward items of their choice. In addition, with points-based programs you can incorporate several incentive programs (safety, attendance, production, quality, cost reduction, etc.) into one rewards system. This in itself can reduce your budget substantially because the different programs complement one another rather than competing with one another. Points-based programs provide a high degree of flexibility, allowing employees to be rewarded for even small contributions. Each employee selects the specific rewards that will motivate him, that he believes he can achieve. Myth:
Incentive programs are easy to administer. Taking the Next Step 2. Define what it will be worth to you, your company, and your employees when you achieve your safety goals, both monetarily and for the good of everyone involved. This step is frequently left out, making your safety and incentive programs very difficult to sell to the people who control the budget. They need to be able to see what their return on investment will be. 3. Next, do a critical and honest evaluation of the current status of safety within your company. If there are problem areas, acknowledge them. Don't worry about how the problems came about or who was responsible for creating them, only that they are there and need to be addressed for your safety program to move forward. 4. Once you know where you currently are and where you want to go, then you can start to put together plans to move in that direction. Make a list of specific areas that need to be addressed and set short-term and long-term goals in each of those areas. Determine what will be required and who will need to be involved to achieve those goals. Now, determine where to apply the incentives that will motivate employees to become involved in achieving each of your specific safety goals. 5. The next challenge is to determine how much to budget for your safety incentive programs. You will need to make this determination yourself based on what you have done in the past, what you expect to achieve, and how many employees need to be involved. Secrets to Success In order to be effective, incentives must have perceived value to the recipient, something worth working for. The most motivational rewards are items that the recipient cannot, because of cost or other factors, simply go out and purchase. Here are some guidelines for budgeting:
As for what to use for rewards, the important thing is not to forget that, to be motivational, an incentive must have perceived value to the recipient. If asked, employees frequently will say they want cash incentives; however, research has proven that it takes $7 in cash rewards to equal the motivational value of $1 in non-cash rewards. Nearly all cash rewards are used to purchase things that are used up within a matter of days, and the recipient has little or no recollection of what the money was used for. Cash has no trophy value. The most motivational rewards are ones the recipient can pick out ahead of time and set as her personal goal. It needs to be something she can visualize, something she would not normally purchase for herself or her family. Once she has it, she has something she can be proud of (trophy value). Don't forget the most important and least expensive
reward of all: recognition. Whether we admit it or not, all of us
like to receive recognition for our accomplishments. You can triple
the value of a reward item by presenting it to the recipient in
front of a group of his peers. It not only motivates the person
receiving the award; it also motivates others to want the same recognition. |
www.safetyjackpot.com