“Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone.”
–Gladys Browyn Stern
Safety rewards can come in different shapes and sizes and don’t need to have a huge monetary value. There’s a famous story about a Hewlett Packard employee who burst into his manager’s office with the solution to a stubborn problem. The manager, desperate to acknowledge the achievement, [...]

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Employee of the Month programs are a perfect embodiment of the dysfunctions that can rob reward systems of their effectiveness. The three things I dislike about Employee of the Month:

Ineffective Motivation. Being named Employee of the Month may be more of an embarrassment than a reward especially for employees who don’t like public recognition.
Zero Sum [...]

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The secret to giving safety rewards that really motivate is simple: ask people what they want. Find out what it’s going to take to get them to do what you want. Try to tailor awards as much as possible so that you get maximum motivational effect for each individual.
Safety Rewards Are Not One-Size-Fits-All
What’s motivational to [...]

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Here are some of the most common mistakes I’ve seen employers make in implementing a safety rewards system:

Using a one-size-fits-all approach. Rewards and motivation must be personalized as much as possible.
Letting others select the rewards. You need input from the recipient to determine which rewards will actually motivate.
Being locked into one reward system. You need [...]

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Used correctly, safety rewards can be very effective. Rewards foster accountability. Rewarding people for positive things gets them to do those things. It’s basic human behavior. People want to get caught doing the right thing. These principles should be used to improve safety performance.
Selecting the Right Rewards
Different levels of an organization should be rewarded for [...]

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As the world braces for a predicted wave of pandemic influenza, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a report summarizing the level of flu activity in the U.S. between April (when the first H1N1 virus infections in the U.S. were identified) through August. Here are some of the CDC’s key findings:
Up, Down, Up
Flu activity [...]

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The economics of PPE, is a topic that doesn’t get much attention. And in this era of heavy budget cuts, that’s a problem. Last week, I talked about one of the few studies to address this issue. Although the researchers focused on perception and use of PPE in the British construction industry, the survey’s findings [...]

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Fall arrest systems, respirators and other personal protective equipment cost money. So it’s no surprise that when budget cuts are needed, PPE draws heavy scrutiny. But cutting expenditures on PPE equipment or training is likely to prove penny wise and pound foolish. In addition to increasing the risk of injuries, cutting corners on PPE can [...]

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Here’s a nifty little example you can use to document the economic return of dollars invested on PPE.
Direct Cost of Average Eye Injury (medical, workers’ comp, etc.): $10,000
Indirect Cost of Eye Injury (3 x direct costs): $30,000
Total Nominal Costs of Eye Injury: $40,000
Profit Margin on Job Where Injury Occurs: 5%
New Revenue Company Must Generate to [...]

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This is my fourth and final installment and if I had to sum up the message of this series in one sentence, it would be this: Applying sound principles of measurement and feedback – of “keeping score” – is the key to improving safety performance and culture.
Score Keeping and Safety
I started this series with a [...]

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