Incentive Magazine featured an article by Andrea Doyle about the recovery effort in its January/February publication. As construction crews and utility companies work to rebuild what Hurricane Sandy destroyed, Doyle asserts that on-site safety will play a significant role. The pressure to rebuild communities and restore services will be placed directly on the shoulders of construction workers and utility employees. However, some companies are confident their employees will not forget about how important safety in the workplace is. These companies have understood the importance of employee safety incentives in the past and with the help of communication, training and recognition, are certain safety will be top of mind for their employees during the cleanup effort.
Safety Communications
Communicating about the importance of employee safety in the workplace and on jobsites can be difficult with people moving around so much to get the job done. This is why it is important to cover all of your bases: in the workplace, at jobsites and in the home. Wherever your base of operations is at, putting up safety posters and flyers is a great way to remind employees about safety. Additionally, I have had clients who setup email and mailed communications to ensure the message hits home.
Safety Training
Educating employees about being safe, wearing the proper protective equipment and avoiding unsafe situations is vital for preparing them for situations like Hurricane Sandy. My clients with employee safety incentive programs prefer to hold training sessions and ask workers to complete safety quizzes online. When employees complete the safety courses and when they achieve perfect quiz scores, they can receive safety incentives that can be accrued and spent on brand name safety recognition awards.
Rena Esposito, spokesperson for Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G), was interviewed for the article in Incentive Magazine and comments about their safety culture, “Every employee knows what’s expected – always wear personal protective equipment, look out for co-workers, and stop the job if something’s not safe.” I feel this is an important statement, and an idea that organizations in the construction, manufacturing and utility industries should particularly strive to achieve via an employee safety incentive program.
Safety Recognition
Andrea Doyle reports that one of the most powerful recognition tools PSE&G has is the president/COO and his peers are able to recognize individuals and groups who achieve safety milestones. Instituting managersafety recognition programs is so easy and can be a very powerful motivational tool for employees. One easy way I do this for clients is to design safety award cards that can be kept on hand and given to employees by managers for demonstrating safe behavior. If you are looking for a more formal employee safety recognition solution, a printed safety award booklet can be printed and shipped for each person. I really like to put the employee’s name and safety accomplishment (1,000,000 hours of safe work, 500,000 miles of safe driving, contributing a new safety plan SOP, etc). The safety recognition award booklets can be presented during a training meeting or a more formal location-wide celebration.
Safety communications, training and recognition should all be present in a work environment prior to natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy. When you take the time to prepare your workforce, reward employees for participating, and reinforce safe behavior with safety incentives, you are much more likely to reduce accident rates and increase productivity.
