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Reprint from Occupational Health
& Safety Magazine–
Growing
Season
by Larry Bush
Putting your reward emphasis on leading indicators
will improve safety and stimulate a cultural shift.
Forward-looking companies are thinking “leading indicator” rewards
when it comes to safety programs, as they strive to make more efficient
use of their safety investment. This proactive approach is paying
dividends over the old, outcome-based focus.
Traditionally, safety rewards have been aimed at end results (trailing
indicators), with little or no regard for what was necessary to
achieve these results. Most often, rewards were given when workers
went a period of time without an injury or the company achieved
some percentage of injury reduction.
This approach has drawn fire from the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, labor unions, behavior-based safety consultants,
and, to a large degree, safety professionals. The focus on the trailing
indicator has shifted.
The focus now is upon leading indicators those activities, behaviors,
processes, etc., that lead to results. Employees must wear protective
equipment, follow material handling procedures, attend training
and complete it satisfactorily, and so forth. Supervisors must conduct
safety meetings at a certain level of regularity and quality, conduct
machine safeguarding inspections, observe and report on specific
worker behavior, etc. Managers also must take necessary actions
to assure safety is taken seriously by both their direct reporting
supervisors and the workers, as well. Thus, leading indicator rewards
are moving to the forefront of safety program design consideration.
Leading indicator emphasis requires that companies rethink their
rewards plan placing greater emphasis on training rather than the
easily measurable trailing indicator elements such as reduced injury
claim numbers, lowered worker’s compensation outlays, and reductions
in missed time due to injuries. While a leading indicator-based
safety program will ultimately affect all of those same trailing
indicator-associated elements, its impact can be much broader and
occur much further upstream.
Changing the Culture
“For the average company, their safety measurement and goal systems
focus on historical information like incidence or severity rates,
and worker’s compensation insurance experience modification rates,”
says Rick Pollock, president of Minneapolis based Comprehensive
Loss Management, Inc., a leading safety program designer for general
industry and construction. “These outcome-based measures tell you
‘how’ you did last month or last year but are useless in determining
what needs to be done to replicate the results. The company has
no means for measuring the effectiveness of any program elements.
Further, this approach fails to help identify or foster the specific
activities, actions, and behaviors required to achieve the results.
The actual outcome is a reactive, rather than proactive, approach
to accident prevention.
“It’s asking a lot of companies to turn loose those measurable trailing
indicators they’ve worked with all these years. They hold onto those
trailing indicators like a drowning man to a life preserve. But
when they shift their focus upstream and establish achievable goals
for action-based performance, the impact can be dramatic,” Pollock
continues. “It can literally change the company’s entire culture,
impacting everyone from the line worker, to the foreman, to the
person working in the accounting department. This cultural shift
results in significant performance improvement and cost savings.”
A critical key to a leading indicator-based safety program is the
reward system. Pollock says he and his company have worked with
a variety of rewards companies and their programs over the years.
As a safety program designer, he prefers those rewards programs
offering a universal platform that can reward for other employee
performance issues, as well as safety. The universal platform can
stand on its own for the specific safety program instituted, or
it can potentially integrate with the universal rewards currency
for a company’s other rewards-based programs involved with service
recognition, training milestones, quality performance and mentoring,
etc.
A universal rewards platform is made to order for leading indicator-based
safety programs, particularly when integration is possible with
other already existing incentive programs at virtually any level
of the company. Allowing employees the freedom to accumulate reward
value across multiple programs allows them to significantly “up”
the possibilities from their total effort.
“We all know of safety programs where the reward element actually
worked opposite of the intent,” Pollock says. “Ill-received rewards
can incent employees to not report injuries, not seek necessary
treatment, and avoid justifiable insurance claims. A leading indicator-based
rewards system de-emphasizes the importance of those numbers and
places focus on activities such as safety training.
“With a leading indicator-based system, we can reward the forklift
operator for attending the kick-off event, taking Web-based safety
courses, and acting on all the information conveyed. When the supervisor
can literally walk out on the floor and reward the worker for operating
the forklift at the proper speed and at the correct mast height,
that has tremendous behavior impact,” he adds. “Not to mention the
fact that the supervisor can be incented to practice good department
management by routinely observing forklift operations and taking
and having the opportunity to either reward a worker doing a great
job or instruct a struggling worker in acceptable operations techniques.”
Accountability and Tracking
The lack of a reliable method of accounting and performance management
has long been a major drawback to the ability of companies such
as CLMI to convince clients to institute leading indicator-based
safety programs. However, the company recently developed a Web-enabled
software innovation to provide the lacking accounting and performance
management capability.
The software application applies proven accountability and performance
management principles to the area of risk control, loss prevention,
and regulatory compliance. It identifies important risk-reducing
and compliance-related activities for company employees, links them
to the resources and tools required to complete these activities,
and tracks their completion. Through this process, a robust accountability
system is created. By identifying responsibilities and tracking
completion, client companies are able to proactively work with supervisory
and management personnel to ensure that key activities are completed
in a timely manner. To add to the personal acceptance of the program,
a reward and incentive feature can be added to the system to promote
the completion of key risk management activities.
It focuses on leading indicators for safety performance of the organization’s
supervisors and managers, rather than trailing indicators of incidence
rates. Efforts are transferred from reactive management of claims
and incidents to proactive activities that prevent incidents from
occurring. And the application can integrate a variety of universal
rewards programs.
Through advanced universal reward platforms, employee points are
consolidated and tracked in one convenient program, until an employee
redeems accumulated points for desired merchandise, travel packages,
floral deliveries, frequent flyer miles, or more. The intent is
to simplify incentive program management for the corporation, while
stimulating granting employees the limitless choice of products
and services they would expect from a traditional shopping mall.
Benefits of Web-Enables Programs
When looking for a high-quality universal rewards program, verify
that the program works equally well whether rewarding attained safety
goals or recognizing superior job performance or employment anniversaries.
There can be great benefit if the universal reward program is Web-enabled.
One program, for instance, lets participants simply log onto a Web
site and have instant access to a wide range of “storefronts.” These
storefronts are constantly updated; the incentive company picks
up all shipping and return costs on merchandise ordered.
To identify a top-quality, online universal reward program, look
for the ability of the client company to add a page of its own preferred
merchandise and suppress merchandise or services it does not wish
to offer. Preferable programs allow employees to customize the program
to their needs by creating a “wish list” and be notified when the
required number of points is met for their desired merchandise.
A premium program allows employees to customize the program to highlight
offerings in keeping with their individual hobbies and preferences.
Daily sale items and specials are displayed on the homepage.
“At CLMI,” says Pollock, “we have purposely stayed independent of
the rewards end of the business. This has allowed us to concentrate
on our safety program and ergonomic specialties. At the same time,
it means we can choose to work with those companies that are the
most technologically innovative and understanding of our specific
needs. The universal rewards program selected for incorporation
can make or break a leading indicator-based safety program.”
Leading indicators are the wave of the safety program future. The
far-reaching, wide-ranging possibilities are revealing themselves
as companies conceive ways to integrate their services on behalf
of employee safety.
Larry Bush (larryb@meridinet.com)
is Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing for Meridian
Enterprises Corporation, a group travel and incentive leader for
25 years. The company, based in St. Louis, Mo., offers a wide range
of products and services designed to motivate and incent employee
performance through convenience, technology, and choice.
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