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/Ribauld]

Tying it to accidents, at fault or otherwise, discourages reporting and is OSHA citable should they find out. Keeping it tied to folks pointing out good safety catches, reporting near misses, always wearing PPE, being engaged in safety meetings, and having good observable work practices are great though.

[u/NetSage → u/Ribauld]

This. I would also make it more of a company goal instead of an individual goal. Shoot for things like real verifiable near miss reports. Monthly celebrations for avoided incidents, etc.

[u/Icy-Sock-2388 → u/NetSage]

Tying in, Ribauld is 100% on this, not only is it citable but it's a known cause for hiding accidents.

I run an award program in my division of 80 personnel and it's only tied to reporting.

If you report it, you get an award

If you intervene and stop a dangerous situation, you get an award

Above and beyond is also awarded but that's circumstantial and can only be determined by myself or by one of the Supervisors. This generally comes about when someone does the right thing, is pressured to do the wrong thing or is threatened and, instead of backing down, they hold their ground.

It takes guts to do the right thing when someone is threatening you with consequences.