Does your company have safety incentives?
Maybe the term "safety incentives" is intimidating. Do you recognize employees who demonstrate safe behaviors? Are your employees recognized during TT&S' conference for safe driving?
If you can say yes to either of these, then you have safety incentives. Good for you!
Trying to have any kind of safety incentive is evidence of management's commitment to safety, which is an absolutely essential component to an effective safety program.
That being said, not all safety incentives are created equal. There are some that can really bolster your program and give you more information about how to improve for the future. And then, there are some that can actually damage the program. Let's take a look at a few examples.
Very common mistake: Days since last accident countdowns
We've all seen a sign, lots of times in a maintenance shop, counting down the days since the last accident or incident. The good about this strategy is that it does boost safety awareness, so it's not all bad. However, if you're looking to step up your program and follow best practices, it's not the best way forward. These signs and any other incentives given to employees for a certain time period spent without any incidents drives down incident reporting. And believe it or not, that's a bad thing.
Because of things like these incident countdown signs, employees may not want to report an incident so they don't disappoint coworkers or supervisors. They may keep an incident to themselves, or even an injury that they initially don't feel is too bad, but worsens over time and becomes in need of more treatment. They also may not feel free to report near misses, which could repeat and end up injuring someone.
This flavor of safety incentive can come in a few different forms:
- Days since last accident sign posted
- Employee annual / quarterly goal about not having any injuries on the job
- Pressure from management on low incident reporting numbers
A better way forward - "Good catch" programs
Rather than pressuring employees to keep incidents down, an alternative is to recognize employees who report incidents, near misses, or any other safety concerns. These are often called "Good Catch" programs. It can be as simple as recognizing the employee during an all-company or safety meeting.
This requires a lot of messaging and modeling to employees to become successful, especially if you're transitioning from a "No Incidents" culture to "Good Catch." Employees will be hesitant to come forward for a while, so you may have to dig deep to begin with to get the system going. If someone has questions about a paint they're using and whether they need to use PPE? Great - that's a "good catch." If they joined a safety walkaround and pointed out a potential hazard: "Good catch!"
Examples of ways to implement a program like this:
- Incorporate into employee annual / quarterly goals opportunities for "good catches," such as:
- Joining a safety walkaround
- Evaluating a routine work process for hazards
- Participating in a job hazard analysis
- Sometimes a specific incentive can help, too. What about a gift card?
The important thing is to NEVER punish employees for reporting incidents (except in the most obviously negligent cases), and to PRAISE a ton for bringing up a "good catch."
Again, if you already have a safety incentive system, that's a great start! If it's more weighted toward the "No Incidents" side of things, consider making some tweaks to make it more palatable for employees to report "Good Catches."
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