Everybody’s an Expert on Safety Award Systems

Last year we were involved in a diverse discussion on safety award systems on LinkedIn.  A member of the group asked for help and some ideas on safety awards.  The comments he received from the group, mainly safety managers, supervisors, safety specialists etc., many and varied.

What interested us, but did not surprise us, was the breadth of comments…some seemingly hostile, some with a respectful disbelief in safety incentives and some with complete confidence in safety awards as a viable means to reduce injuries and accidents. 

There are at least a couple of reasons why there is such a wide divergence of opinions of safety programs.

First many safety programs are implemented on a DIY basis by individuals who are not versed on the tactics used to produce and implement successful incentive programs.  Unfortunately when shortcutting those tactics they set themselves up to fail.  A vehement distrust of safety award systems can often be traced back to poorly designed and implemented programs, not the fault of safety awards as a whole.   Who’s the fault in a car accident, the car or the driver?

Second, the award industry has many different types of award companies and deliverables, with some having less competence in implementing successful safety award programs than others.  That combination can lead to programs with limited success or even programs that produce no significant result for the money spent. 

The combination of these two reasons often leads to disgruntled safety managers who are less inclined to implement a safety program ever again, and that’s a shame because they are a viable strategy to use within any overall safety effort, especially those that use minimal awards on a consistent and continuous basis to reward workers for positive safety behavior change.

Countless studies have shown that award programs properly planned and implemented, can be very effective at achieving dramatic results.  The International Society for Performance Improvement conducted the most comprehensive study ever on the effectiveness of the incentive industry and showed conclusively that these types of programs produce results.

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