Proactive Recognition Programs That Work
There are many safety recognition programs which offer incentives: some incentives work and some don't. Here's a short list of proven successful safety recognition programs with incentives that, if administered correctly, can work for the company:
- Safety Bucks: Supervisors carry safety bucks, and when they are impressed when they see someone doing something right, they reward them. The employee can take the safety buck to the company cafeteria for lunch, or they can use it at a local participating store to purchase items.
- Bonus Programs: When an employee identifies a hazard in the workplace that could cause serious physical harm or a fatality, they are rewarded with a bonus check. In some cases the bonus check is a fixed amount. In other programs the bonus check is a small percentage of the potential direct cost for the accident that might have occurred.
- Safety Heroes: After an extended period of time, employees are rewarded with a certificate or bonus check for complying with company safety rules.
- Reporting hazards, incidents and injuries: Wait a minute: do I mean that employees should be recognized for reporting injuries? That's right. If employees report injuries immediately, they not only minimize the physical/psychological impact of the injury on themselves, they reduce the direct/indirect accident costs to the company. Both the individual and the company win if the employee reports injuries immediately.
These are just a sample of many ideas available. There are many other ways to recognize employees being used by companies across the country. Your recognition programs will also be more successful if you include safety achievements in employee performance appraisals. Call your local OSHA office to see if they know of companies in your area that have developed successful proactive safety recognition programs: use those companies as benchmarks.
Check out this short audio clip by Dan Clark of theSafetyBrief.com that discusses six ways to encourage incident reporting, and improve safety.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-6. Which of the following safety recognition programs is most likely to result in reactive employee safety behaviors?
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