Incentive - December 2007 - (Page 32)

PLAY IT SAFE continued from page 31 not paying enough attention to the worker behaviors they’re manipulating.” A third of safety incentive programs may suffer from hidden injuries, Sims estimates. “It can become a situation where incentive programs are causing people to suppress injuries to get the rewards,” he says. “A lot of companies appear to be really safe, but it gets swept under the rug.” Safety Jackpot program offers a template for a welldesigned safety awareness effort W FOCUSED ON SAFETY While there’s room for improvement, many workplaces are safer, and it’s largely due to the efforts of individual managers to create cultures of safety on the job. “I think that the people who are responsible for safety in workplace environments are beginning to realize the power of creating an incentive program,” says Denny Gorman, president of Wrightsville, Pa.–based Gorman Consulting. “A lot of managers have been using incentives to motivate employees for a long time, but now they’re realizing that an incentive program can be really effective for promoting safer behavior in the workplace.” Managers are motivated to create safer workplaces because mishaps can have disastrous impacts, not only on the injured parties, but on workplace morale, worker productivity and the bottom line. “The pressure is on companies to reduce worker compensation and insurance costs,” says Gorman. “And though the need for workplace safety extends across all demographics, worker compensation costs are higher in jobs that are inherently less safe. Employers will pay higher insurance premiums for a drill press operator working on a shop floor, as opposed to someone doing clerical work in an office.” However, safety lessons learned in one setting can be applied to continued on page 34 ith more than 50 years of incentive experience, Peavey Performance Systems, in Lenexa, Kan., has identified some of the essential qualities of a successful safety incentive program and built them into its Safety Jackpot incentive program—and that’s why it’s successful for so many companies today. 5 Reward both individual and team performance. Establish a healthy level of pride with a balance of individual recognition and team recognition. Recognize team results so everyone has a stake in the performance of those around them to promote self-supervision and to help direct supervisors police the program. 6 Allow all who achieve to win. Universal recognition is the only way to achieve long-term results. Avoid the “all or none” mentality of penalizing everyone when one person fails to achieve the goal. Everyone who achieves must be recognized for their individual good efforts. 7 Reward proactive behavior. Build in a good balance between proactive behavior and accident prevention. If all of the emphasis is on the desired results, the behavior necessary to achieve the results may not be there. Examples of proactive behavior include reporting a near miss, attending a safety meeting, passing a safety quiz or having a safety suggestion implemented. 1 Set your safety program’s criteria to meet your company’s needs. Safety Jackpot can be individually tailored to help you achieve your goals. It can help you increase safety awareness, improve participation in safety events, decrease accidents, improve attendance or affect other behavior that needs attention. 2 Keep things simple. The simpler the safety program, the easier it is to administer. A good safety incentive program is one that doesn’t take productive time away from any of your employees. Complexity is not a requirement; in fact, it should be avoided. 3 Promotion is key. One of the easiest ways to keep goals in front of everyone is with lots of visible reminders. Plan a kickoff party to promote your company’s exciting, new safety program. And continue to promote the program year-round with posters and newsletters—the Safety Jackpot program has lots of ways to keep people motivated. 4 Frequently reward your employees. To keep people motivated and achieving your goals, reward behavior constantly. Weekly distribution of game cards has proven to be effective. Use bonus cards to reward monthly, quarterly, annually or onthe-spot when your employees go “aboveand-beyond” on the job. 8 Encourage interaction. Encourage your employees to interact, trade cards and talk about the program. The more interaction among employees, the more excitement there is about your incentive program, which has a direct effect on the success of your safety program and the return on your investment. 9 Be creative. Be prepared to change your program’s criteria whenever needed. Spice things up with on-the-spot rewards, award bonus cards for perfect attendance, offer monthly prizes or include game cards with quarterly or annual employee performance awards. Every effort that goes into building interest in the Safety Jackpot program has a direct effect on safety awareness and bottom-line safety costs. Source: www.safetyjackpot.com/peaveyadvice.html 32 | Incentive | December 2007 | incentivemag.com http://www.safetyjackpot.com/peaveyadvice.html http://incentivemag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Incentive - December 2007

Incentive - December 2007 Contents Editor’s Note: Revved Up In the News Cover Story: Rolls-Royce Empowers Its Own Case Study: Booz Allen Hamilton Beating Your Best Incentive Primer: Add Value to Your Event Keeping Safety In Mind Incentive Interview Potentials Here and Now Research: Corporate Gifts Facts Report Tabletop Awards: Travel Gift Cards Travel News Viva Puerto Vallarta Indigenous Spas Advertiser Index Off the Cuff: Ambassador Christoph Bubb Luxury Brands Special Supplement

Incentive - December 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.