As a continuation of the National Safety Month theme, this month’s return on investment installment is focused on safety recognition program roi. Providing an accurate return on investment is especially important for safety recognition programs, or reward programs in which workers receive safety awards as onetime gifts, as many assets are often poured into such programs. You can show the return on investment of your safety program by presenting the tangible and intangible impact of the program to upper management.
Measuring Tangible Results of your Safety Recognition Program
Roy Saunderson’s article, Top 10 Tips for Solid Recognition ROI, is an excellent resource for managers responsible to upper management for providing an accurate safety recognition program return on investment. Saunderson advises, “Behaviors are easy to measure; they either happen or they don’t.” Identify the behaviors you want to measure at the beginning of the safety program or end of the year to establish your safety program benchmarks. Some common behaviors that can be measured include: accident/injury rates, workers compensation claims paid, safety compliance, number of safety ideas submitted by employees, productivity levels, absenteeism rates and retention rates.
After you have developed your safety program benchmarks, track these statistics over time. By keeping records of these behaviors, you will be able to provide management with a clear idea of the tangible impact of the safety recognition program. All of these tangible factors contribute to the very high return on investment possibilities of safety programs. According to an AllBusiness.com reduce injury and illness rates by 20% or more - and generate a return of $4 to $6 for every $1 invested.” article, “OSHA asserts from its own evidence that companies implementing effective safety and health programs can
Gauging Intangible Results of your Safety Recognition Program
Many times the intangible results of a safety program are the most distinct and apparent to workers. As a safety culture is developed, the nature of a person’s work day can completely change from simply showing up to work to becoming proactive and productive on the job. Some intangible effects of safety recognition programs include: safety awareness, safety compliance acceptance, safety attitudes and team morale. The NFIB reports the impact of safety programs on their website says that 96% of workers polled felt that their workplace safety program increased safety awareness and compliance.
Labor, materials and cash are all invested into a safety recognition program and showing upper management these assets are being put to good use is essential for the continuation of the safety program and a good safety record. Check back on July 12th for the next return on investment series blog post.
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