Don’t Measure Accidents

This title is a little inane to be in a discussion of safety. Of course you have to measure accidents; it’s one of the ways that tells you if your organization has been safe.  But is it the most important one?

What Gets Measured Gets Done…What Gets Rewarded Gets Repeated has been a mantra in the incentive awards industry for as long as I can remember. We all know that if you let people know you are measuring them, and reporting on that measurement to them and others, then you are likely to get the individual to at least work to achieve the objective.  And when you consistently apply positive reinforcement to positive performance, you can make that performance a habit.   Obviously it’s not as easy as that, but it’s certainly a good place to begin if you’re thinking of planning any kind of incentive program.  The key here is that you are rewarding a behavior, not a result.

Measuring performance is an important part of any managerial process and forms the basis for continuous improvement. Measuring safety performance is absolutely critical.  But measuring safety without providing feedback to your workers is like bowling through a curtain.  In our opinion if you want to improve safety performance and the overall effectiveness of your safety program, you need to change the way you measure it.  Observe the behaviors that effect safe performance

For years, organizations measured safety performance by analyzing injuries that had already occurred, such as frequency and severity, first aid injury rate, OSHA recordables, LTA’s….all “milestone” achievements.  Because of the tremendous expense, Worker’s Compensation costs were common points of analyzation.  So, following the incentive industry trend of rewarding results, safety incentives were given in the form “milestone” awards as well.

When OSHA began to express concern the some incentive programs had the potential to encourage workers to hide injuries, many of these “milestone” award programs were discontinued….many, but not all.  We continually see companies that have these types of programs.  And frankly, when we analyze these programs, the awards budgets exceed the budgets for behavior based programs that we implement today.

It’s difficult (if not impossible) to find an incentive company suggest rewarding for milestone achievement, yet many of these programs still exist.  Why?  A main reason is the reluctance of budget setting without a guarantee of a return on the expense.  However, this concern doesn’t seem to exist when budgeting for other pieces of the safety program such as training.  

Isn’t it time to consider the expense of rewarding positive safety behavior with continuous and consistent awards an economically sound way to prevent injuries and accidents?  We’ve changed the measurement, let’s change the attitude on positive reinforcement.

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

Take the Subjectivity Out Of BBS Programs

As part of our ongoing program activity with our clients, we gather actual Leading Indicators that our clients use in their safety award systems.  The list that we have created is by no means meant to be an exhaustive combination of every possible leading indicator that have or can be used in BBS award systems.  It is designed to be a thought starter for indicators a company can use when they are considering moving from a traditional lagging indicator award system, “prize at the end”, to a program using safety awards to create safe behaviors and then turn them into habits. 

Our list is very simplistic when compared to H&S statistics and processes which cover data such as H&S tours, H&S meetings, training, induction, inspections, audits, drills etc. Those types of Objectively Verifiable Indicators (OVIs) are beyond our purview and allow clients to evaluate performance and identify gaps/malfunctions instantly.  But if you are going to move from one type of award structure to another, you need to start somewhere.

When you create OVIs in measurable and observable terms, they provide the basis for individual performance measurement suitable for project monitoring and evaluation.  They become the parameters of change or of results, indicating as to what extent the project objectives have been achieved.  They form the perfect structure from which to launch your award system and help your employees become successful in achieving results and earning awards.

Once you have achieved results in these OVIs, say for example over a six month period, it is then time for some new ones.  Don’t fall into the trap that everything is good, go find something that isn’t. 

The incentive industry has known for years that consistently and continuously rewarding behavior change with minimal awards will over the long run change behavior.  If you would like to see a paper on an award system that was designed for just these types of programs, we would be happy to send you an electronic copy.

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

Measurements that Correlate to Successful Safety Performance

Tracking performance is critical to continual improvement and success but, in the area of safety, many organizations have struggled to identify measurements that have a strong correlation to successful performance.

Many companies make the mistake of relying exclusively on lagging indicators, such as incident rates, lost or restricted workdays, or Workers’ Compensation costs. Although these can be useful with respect to benchmarking within similar industries, they only provide a retrospective view of your safety program performance.

A better practice is to incorporate leading indicators—which identify, track, measure, and correct the factors that have a strong correlation with potential accidents—into your overall safety metrics strategy. The goal is to use this information to identify causal factors in an accident and take preventative measures to correct them. This strategy is also an excellent opportunity to increase your overall employee participation in your safety program

·        Identify trailing (lagging) and leading measures and metrics and use them in an effective way

·        Select EHS measures that drive high performance safety management success for your company or at specific facilities

·        Create the right balance in your safety performance measurement between leading and lagging measures

·        Incorporate benchmarking considerations in your EHS measurement systems

·        Use audit results as a key measure of safety performance improvement

·        Track key EHS metrics—and why those EHS measures could have the greatest impact on your company’s safety and health program!

·        Use measures to motivate, drive performance, and foster continuous improvement

·        Objectively maximize the use of leading safety measures

·        Embrace the qualitative value of EHS measures—and why safety professionals must resist pressures to avoid them

·        Effectively—and successfully—communicate EHS performance factors with CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and the board of directors to increase leadership buy-in and supervisory accountability

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