Safety awareness and compliance in the workplace can mean so many different things to companies that finding a simple yet worthwhile solution to increasing safety may seem insurmountable. If you don’t have the time or budget to begin a safety incentive program right away, your company may want to look at beginning an on the spot safety program. Depending on what your work environment is, I have a few different safety program ideas to increase results without developing a time intensive, detailed campaign.
Increasing Safety Results in Manufacturing Environments
Manufacturers are often aware of how much safety issues are costing the company but at a loss for how to prevent accidents and increase safety compliance. A common problem for my clients with safety programs is that workers are behind a lot of protective gear and verbal communication within a factory floor is near impossible. One way around this issue is to give supervisors a number of printed safety certificates that can be distributed throughout the month to workers who demonstrate safe behavior and help to prevent accidents and injuries.
When an individual is observed increasing safety in the workplace, the supervisor can hand the worker a point certificate that can be saved or spent on a safety award of his or her choice. The safety program certificates are paper and can be folded and placed into a pocket. The safety certificates recognize the worker for his or her job well done while entitling the person to a merchandise safety award. There is nothing for management to track and all supervisors have to do is weigh the activity with the number and value of the point certificates they have to distribute.
Reducing Accidents on Worksites
Many of the construction companies we work with are very focused on jobsite safety. One of the most important metrics to these organizations is reducing recordable accidents and injuries that involve workers’ compensation cases. Since the human resources department tracks individual recordable accidents, it can easily run a report for hours worked and occurrences of accidents. The company can determine how often a safety award should be earned for a set number of consecutive hours worked with no accidents. When workers pick up their pay checks, they have the option of quickly picking out their own safety awards from a safety program catalog kept at the office.
Increasing Safety Performance in Offices and Warehouses
Office and warehouse environments are often affected by lifting accidents and slips or falls which can injure employees and prevent them from working for a long time. Especially for a small business, these insurance claims can be devastating if a key employee is on leave. Clients of mine with workers in these environments who want to encourage safe behavior implement safety programs featuring award cards. Office and shipping managers are given the wallet sized award cards, similar to an insurance card. These safety award cards can be handed out for on the spot recognition when an employee prevents an accident or assists a co-worker to avoid an accident. When employees demonstrate safe behavior, the manager can immediately recognize the safety performance with the safety award card which also entitles the person to a gift of his or her choice.
The key with all three of these safety programs is to allow those who work closely with workers and understand the safety precautions and behaviors specific to their environment to give out safety awards as needed. This takes the burden off of a safety coordinator or Human Resources Manager to develop goals and implement a full blown safety incentive program targeted towards specific groups needing to improve safety performance. Though a safety incentive programs may be worth implementing down the line, these simple and straightforward safety programs can help increase safety in the workplace on a smaller scale.
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