When Safety Slogans and Signs Can be Harmful.

Do the signs that track the number of days without an accident really encourage safe work performance?

They’ve been around for years, and can’t do any harm.  Right?  They are important because they clearly depict the company’s safety objective.  Right?  This is meaningful and motivational information.  Right?

We respectfully disagree that any of the above statements are true!  These signs can be harmful.  They merely communicate the fact that the plant has not had an injury, but do nothing about teaching the meaning of safe practices.  They do reinforce the goal we all have of no accidents, but frankly any system that focuses on that goal alone is  flawed and will unintentionally reward luck. 

When your culture rewards only the decrease of accidents, you will encourage employees not to report incidents which can lead to other problems that can be worse than the accident.  This may also result in unsafe and unethical behavior.  In addition, in this type of culture employees often fail to report safety issues because they fear negative fallout from management.

This type of communication does not motivate improved safety performance or to develop sound safe behaviors to produce lasting change.  If you want to motivate change, design your safety effort around the behaviors that when performed in a safe manner will accumulatively result in a decrease of incidents. 

When you use compliance signs that promote specific behaviors, and then reward your employees for displaying those behaviors you can and will build safe work habits in your organization. 

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

Award Programs-Another Way to Promote Safety.

Safety award programs use rewards to encourage employees to follow safety protocols, work safely, and be vigilant on the job. They work for a few different reasons:  

• Rewards for a job well done fulfills our desire for acknowledgment and affirmation
• Recognition promotes worker engagement
• Rewards keep safety at the forefront of every worker's mind

 Reward programs don’t have to be costly to be effective.  In fact the incentive industry has known for years that:

A small, positive, immediate consequence has more impact on behavior than a large, future and uncertain one.

By consistently and continuously reinforcing behavior change with small amounts of awards, you will change behavior

People do things for their own reasons and needs – not yours.  If you want to motivate change, then offer awards that appeal to those needs.  Within reason, let them have what they want, not what you think they want and not what you want them to have.

With a bit of brainstorming, you can come up with ways to encourage safe behavior and reduce the rate of accidents and injuries without putting a strain on your budget. 

Regardless of how you structure your program or what awards you use, base it only on recognizing improvement in lagging indicators.  That is the only way to build a habit of safe performance that will be lasting.

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

Use Feedback to Bolster Positive Workplace Safety

One of the most important elements of a Behavior Based Safety Model is feedback, yet it is often the most overlooked. We know that behavior is a function of its consequences, and repeating the cycle of behavior change occurs when you make sure to let your workers know how well they are doing.

Behaviorists for decades have been informing companies about the importance of feedback.  Feedback is the glue that binds the “what” you want them to do with the “what’s in it for them”, the positive consequences for them making the change in the first place.  

The right safety award system can reinforce behavior and improve the safety performance of your people.  The entire behavior change model is based on feedback which can both close and then reopen the loop to continue improving performance. 

Here are a few tips on how to give proper feedback:

• Describe what you’ve personally seen, not what others told you
• Respect your workers privacy
• Concentrate on behaviors, not other unrelated issues
• Be as specific as possible
• Be as timely with the feedback as you can and give it as soon after the occurrence as possible

 Not having feedback is like bowling with a curtain in front of the pins.  You do a great job of lining up, approaching the lane with a good motion, rolling the ball down the center and hearing the pins dropping, but you don’t know how many went down.  You can’t have a good recognition program without letting everyone know how they are doing.

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

Communication Keys in Safety Award Systems

Safety award programs create a forum for open communications in a positive manner and offer excellent cross functional coaching opportunities!  No other company planned communication event will be more readily accepted than a program where the employee can receive something tangible for their efforts. People will pay attention when they know there’s something in it for them. That’s just human nature.

Good communications within your award system are crucial.  Some keys to making the communications effective are:

Make sure your safety incentive program is tailored to the realities of your company and specific to your physical location.

Active and involved commitment from the “top-down” and from the “bottom-up” is a requirement not an option!

Communicate with consistency and continuity.  Make the pledge to safety as “Our Way of Conducting Business” on a day-to-day basis throughout the organization from the top down and it will become a reality from the bottom up. 

Communicate your safety performance successes …share your lessons learned and celebrate those individuals at all levels, who standout as safety models and safety leaders!

Make sharing safety realities, performance, and outcomes a way of life and a way of thinking” every day and at every opportunity to do so … weekly safety meetings, brown-bag safety gatherings, union meetings, informal gatherings, on-site JSA gatherings, etc. everyplace, everywhere, and every occasion with everyone!

Make a commitment to take the time to listen and respond to one another about safety issues.The most frequent complaint heard from individuals that experience the dysfunction of organizations struggling with safety compliance, safety performance, and safety outcomes is: “No one takes the time to listen to what is really going on.”  And … “If and when they do, I rarely hear back from anyone who truly cares!  Why should I bother?”

Make sure you reward those small positive safety behaviors on a consistent basis so you will change them into a habit.  Use rewards that are consistent with your message

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

Why & How to Involve Family in Your Safety Initiatives

This article in Safeopedia is about driving your company’s safety culture at home and worth the read.  Engaging the family is something we have recommended to clients for years, something we know that can be very effective when combined with the right safety award that the entire family can share.

The message is simple, don’t just focus your safety program on your employees, focus it also on their families.  While incidents of injuries are very harmful to the company, they can be devastating to the family.

In today’s world, everyone is connected.  People are not more than a text, tweet email or Facebook message away.  Keeping your employees actively involved in the safety rules of their performance means keeping their families actively involved as well.  You can use regular communications channels to bring the families into your safety culture. Monthly mailings, tweets and other social media can be used to great effect.  Find topics that are general in nature but tie into your safety values.  Many safety topics at work can apply to family and children as well. 

Communications is important in any safety culture.  Make sure you share safety information about the challenges their loved ones face on the job, and where feasible bring the family to an event that spotlights safety…such as safety fairs. When the family understands your issues they can be more supportive of the employee in their everyday work life.

If you are using any type of safety award to motivate safe performance in leading indicators, make sure the awards can be enjoyed by the family.  This is something we have been recommending to clients for years, it doesn’t cost you anymore and can be powerful motivator for them. 

When you include family…“you will have a whole army working to build and support your company’s safety culture”

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

Why Communications Are Key In Safety Incentive Programs

Thorough and well-structured safety incentive programs provide a great way to effectively communicate your safety culture.  They can communicate the commitment to continuous improvements to safety performance, and most importantly to each individual in your organization, who keeps and is dedicated to one another’s safety on-and-off-the-job!  

For a white paper that discusses the importance of communications in your safety award system, please click here.

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