Can You Afford Not to Have a Safety Award Program?

Everyone in the safety industry understands that deaths can occur on the job.  They may not make the evening news, but about 13 people die every day from workplace accidents.  Thanks to the untiring efforts of safety professional these deaths are down 66% from 38 deaths per day in 1970.  While we certainly don’t believe safety awards were the reason for the drop in deaths, but when used as a way to change behavior  and in combination with all the other safety tools it had an impact.

What do companies spend on safety award initiatives?  From Incentive Magazine research on safety award programs we find some interesting data:

% of Companies Responding	Average Budget $ Per Worker
43%	$3 per month
20%	$5 per month
10%	$15 per month
12%	$30 per month
11%	$62 per month
5%	$85 per month

Considering that recent research conducted by Liberty Mutual showed that for every $1 invested in a safety award program there was a corresponding savings of $3.  Other research on the same subject show the ROI could be as high as $6 per $1 spent.

The safety industry has made great strides and companies are more diligent about education, measurement, training and feedback on safety.  But the employees can often become the wild card without a proper safety award system in place.

Is $15 or $20 a month per worker in a system to reinforce safe work practices too much to invest in making your overall safety effort a success, especially if the average cost per WEEK in work related injury runs more than $35000! 

Where do you stand in the debate on safety awards?  Are you a hardliner that argues “I am not going to pay extra for employees to follow the rules and be safe.  Or are you a pragmatist and may say “Nothing has a way of improving safety performance like a little reinforcement for performing all job responsibilities in a safe manner."

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