What We Have Here is a Failure to Motivate:

The Truth about Safety Incentive Programs

By Carl Potter, CSP,  CMC and Deb Potter, PhD

In spite of the millions of dollars companies spend every year on safety incentive programs, research shows that injuries continue to occur. Additionally, such programs often actually demotivate employees, at best yielding diminishing returns over time.

Does your organization have one of the following ineffective safety incentive programs or something similar?

Play Lotto!: In some companies, the names of those employees who work without a recordable injury are entered in a lottery-like drawing for great prizes, like exotic vacations or a new pick-up truck. The result is one very happy winner and a lot of disappointed losers. Talk about demotivating…

You can’t bank on it: Another popular incentive program is like giving every employee a checkbook full of withdrawals but no deposits. Each worker begins the year with a “safety fund.” Every time a recordable injury occurs to anyone in the company, a specific amount is subtracted from every employee’s “account.” At the end of the year, employees receive the remaining balance as a bonus. As a result, employees look for targets to blame—often their co-workers or management—as their bonuses decrease. Because they’re usually busy pointing fingers at others for their smaller bonuses, employees working under this kind of incentive system rarely pause to consider what their own role could be in the effort to reduce injuries.

Racking up points: Other companies dole out incentives based on a points system. Employees accumulate points by attending safety meetings, participating on safety committees, successfully completing audits, submitting near-miss reports, etc. Management deducts points for injuries or vehicle incidents. Employees receive monetary rewards based on their accumulated points. The problem with this system is that employees often feel as if they have no control over the outcome. As a result, employees and supervisors tend to under-report or play games with the numbers, so no one trusts the outcome.

Unfortunately, most organizations that have adopted these and other forms of safety incentive programs find that the results are significantly less than they hoped for. The programs can be costly and, in the long run, do not typically result in a reduction of injury rates. Rather than try to “buy” your employees’ commitment to safety, consider these techniques to engage everyone to take personal responsibility for safety:

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Carl Potter, CSP, CMC and Deb Potter, PhD, CMC work with organizations that target a zero-injury workplace so everyone can go home to their families every day without injury. As advocates of a zero-injury workplace, they are speakers, authors, and consultants to industry. For information about their Simply Seamless Safety SMServices, contact them at Potter and Associates International, Inc. 800-259-6209