We Are What We Repeatedly Do

Recognizing safe individual performance is a cornerstone of successful behavior based safety systems. Many books have been written about BBS and rewarding safe behaviors. Using minimum safety awards to recognize safety performance on a continuous basis has taken on a completely new understanding within safety professionals.  The days of handing out a safety award or bonus at the end of the year to those who have been lucky enough not to have had an accident have been replaced by simpler awards.

Employee recognition is not a new found business tool; it’s been around for a while.  Here’s an interesting quote about it:

“In the arena of human life the honors and rewards fall to those who show their good qualities in action”…  circa 350 BC…Aristotle

This sentiment certainly holds true for workers who perform in a safe manner. Something else that Aristotle said is very meaningful when it comes to behavior based safety:

Those of us who prioritize safety recognition understand the power of that recognition.  We know it’s not just a nice to have, it is a must have.  It reinforces the most important safety outcomes you want for your organization.

If your BBS recognition is becoming worn and tired consider kicking it up a notch and try some of the following today: 

• Plan to thank at least one person a day
• Take a small working group for a cup of coffee or lunch
• Handwrite a simple thank you note and give it to a worthy employee
• Ask and executive to stop by a person’s job or work space and thank them
• Accompany the verbal recognition with a small gift or gift card
• Present the recognition publicly if appropriate (be careful as some employees can feel uncomfortable with this type of recognition)
• Make your recognition random so that it provides an element of surprise

 And remember what Dale Carnegie said:

"People work for money but go the extra mile for recognition, praise and rewards."

For more information on AwardSafety products or services or other white papers please contact us at awardsafetyinfo@cox.net.

Safety Is Still About Choices

There are millions of dollars spent each year on the best training, communications the best engineers, technicians, and safety specialists to keep people safe in the workplace and at home.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the rate of incidents of accidents in private industry has decreased each year from 2003.  However in 2015 we still had over 2.9 million non-fatal accidents…a rate of 3.0 cases for every 100 full time workers.  4,836 workers were killed on the job in 2015, more than 93 a week or more than 13 deaths every day.

Why?   Many would argue that a significant proportion of accidents are primarily caused by the behavior of the individual.  If so, all the training and best safety programs in the world won’t change that. If this is a behavioral issue, than wouldn’t using tools that change behavior be an important consideration?

What can help is using safety award systems that reinforce positive safety behaviors. They have been proven to be effective, can be incorporated into your safety culture at a fraction of the cost of training, are easy to begin, but are programs that need to be sustained for the best results. Reinforcing positive safe behaviors takes time do well, time that is often in short supply with safety professionals. 

There have been many articles written on the subject of changing behavior; click here for one a short one that might be of interest. 

For more information on AwardSafety products or services or other white papers please contact us at awardsafetyinfo@cox.net

Painting Safety Incentives with a Broad Brush

All safety professionals have an opinion on safety incentives.  Many don’t believe in them; some find that they can be very helpful in within the designs of their overall safety culture and others have simply given up on them because of the OSHA recording issues and non-reporting of incidents concerns.

Having been involved in safety award systems for many years, we have seen a definite shift in how they are being used.  At one time almost all safety incentives were based on lagging indicators and some did have incident reporting issues, but far less than perceived.  Most safety professionals wouldn’t allow that.  Unfortunately over the last few years the term “safety incentive” became painted with a broad negative brush and many companies stopped using them.

A while back, there was an interesting quote by Dr. Deb Potter from an article from the Safety Daily Advisor.  She mentioned that the problem with safety incentives is that they don’t work the way they are expected to.  Wrong, they work exactly the way they were designed but they were designed by an incentive industry that was steeped in sales incentives, not in awards to change workers behavior to work safely.

Safety awards have a very important place in any safety culture, but in our opinion, the first thing you need to do is change the name.  They aren’t incentives at all; they are reinforcement recognition for positive behavior performance.  They should be used on a continuous and consistent basis to change bad safety performance.  They are reasons for you to acknowledge and thank your employees on the spot for performing all tasks in a safe manner. 

For more information on AwardSafety products or services or other white papers please contact us at awardsafetyinfo@cox.net

Don’t Incentivize Workplace Safety

We recently reviewed an interesting blog post at Manager Link written by Lance Haun titled “Don’t Incentivize Workplace Safety.” 

At AwardSafety we develop and implement safety award systems for our client companies.  You might think it strange for us to link to a viewpoint that is essentially anti-safety awards, but it is just the opposite.  We agree with much of the discussion and conclusions.

Mr. Haun focuses much of his concern on the value of the award.  In the past, the value and

type of the award was a big part of the program determination….a TV, or $500, or a weekend trip, or a tee shirt.  In theory the size of the award dictated the motivational value of the program…and sometimes they worked.  But often they didn’t and many companies spent thousands of budget dollars on awards that didn’t do anything to change safety behavior.  They simply awarded those who were lucky enough not to have had an accident during the program period. Or worse, they had accidents but didn’t report them. 

In the past, almost 100% of these types of programs were driven by lagging indicators, and today, if a program is going to be effective and change behavior it needs to be based on leading indicators.  And the awards don’t need to be high value to get the results.

Behavior based safety that provides for consistent and continuous reinforcement of improved safe performance with minimal awards will help to build a last safety culture that will endure long after the last sweepstakes or safety game card has been played. 

For more information on AwardSafety products or services or other white papers please contact us at awardsafetyinfo@cox.net

The ROI of Safety Award Programs

Financial executives who were surveyed by the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety said that the top benefits of a workplace safety program were predominately financial in nature.  While we might argue that the life and health and overall well-bring of your employees is the top benefit, certainly the top business benefit would be the cost savings that can be generated.

The study went on to show that:

“For every $1 spent on safety awards, there was a savings of $3,

Or a 3:1 ROI”

Many safety professionals believe that a properly designed and implemented safety incentive system that reinforces positive safety behaviors can be instrumental in reducing the incidents of injuries and accidents. 

Billions are spent on safety training and communications and that combination can be very effective.  Training and communication create the awareness and learning necessary to perform in a safe manner.  It makes good economic sense to invest a fraction of the communications and training expense in awards that will provide the motivation to complete the behavioral loop. 

Click here for an overview of an awards program that drives an increase in the number of safe behaviors of all employees and then turns the behaviors into habits.

For more information on AwardSafety products or services or other white papers please contact us at awardsafetyinfo@cox.net.