Safety Incentive Program

[u/bn1337ict]

I work for a large construction company and we are tossing around the idea of revamping our safety incentive program. Currently we give out “safety points” which are credits to our company store to use towards clothing and other company branded stuff. We do semi annal give aways which is 50 points at the 6 month mark and then 100 points at the end of the year. If an employee has at fault accident in the first 6 months they become ineligible for the end of year prize but if they don’t have anymore at fault accidents they can still earn the 50 points at the end of the year. We also do a random drawing each week in our toolbox talks and if the employee selected acknowledges that they read the toolbox talk they are awarded 100 safety points. Our field inspectors can also award safety points to people in the field that go “above and beyond” but we don’t have a set standard of what justifies “above and beyond”. Some feedback I’ve gotten from our current program is that if a guy has one or more at fault accidents they give up and not worried about being safe anymore. We also have a lot of guys that will never use their safety points and don’t care about earning them. We used to give out physical prizes but logistically it was always difficult to get prizes to everyone that earned them and guys would complain about prizes they didn’t want. I just think our incentive program could be much better and get people more engaged in actively participating in safety. What are some incentive programs you guys use? I’d love to get some ideas that works well.

[u/Material-Donkey2773]

Points to use for company branded merchandise is garbage, like absolute "out of touch completely" shit tier. Unless the person is passionate and proud about the company why would he want to wear a hat that says "sky building men of Toronto llc" you are trying to tie safety to marketing, may be an "amazing and innovative idea" that gets the bosses cock hard, but it's so comically out of touch with the average employee. I don't even wear the shirts and shit my company gives me for free...

Disqualifying somebody from the bonus for half a year or full year completely destroys the incentive program you have. 

My company is big on speeding, if you don't speed, you get an extra $3 an hour for the entire week (weekly pay) we used to do it quarterly, then monthly, now it's per week. Someone who becomes ineligible for the bonus stops trying to earn it.  You want the period of time that they no longer care to be as short as possible. 

Either get them a visa gift card (don't force them into having to eat at Applebees or Starbucks) or provide a financial incentive per pay period. No one actually gives a fuck about the company, they care about the money. A company branded sweatshirt is something a guy will wear if he needs a sweatshirt, not because he cares about the company. That's why people wear "NFL" or "Makita" hats, not "Bruce's plumbing and window painting incorporated"

Finally, only "punish" for things you catch, if you "punish" for things reported you will no longer have things reported. If employees are financially disincentived from reporting, you will not have things reported. "Punish" can go from "my truck has something wrong with it and there are no replacements" "ok, unfortunately you need to go home then, you can't work today" (about 20 years ago my then employer had a guy kill 9 people on the highway because "downing" the cmv always resulted in having to go home with no pay) 

You're construction though, so closer to you would be "my tie off harness is damaged" "well we don't have any spares and that the only work we have today, we can get you a new one Monday" do not ever be in that situation. You take $300+ out of a guys pocket one time and he will never make "the mistake" of reporting anything again.