Employee safety and wellness are fast becoming a top priority for organizations. In a given year, companies spend over $170 billion in costs associated with occupational injuries and illnesses. To reduce these costs, and to keep employees engaged and healthy, you need a successful safety incentives program, but that will not create itself. Employees do not just see a safety program and buy in 100% for an indefinite amount of time. Employees need to be incentivized to engage in the programs that you are putting out there for their, and your, benefit.
The employee benefit of safety incentives
The most valuable asset in any company are the employees and it is the employer's responsibility to make work conditions as safe as possible. Implementing an effective safety incentive program helps to increase employee engagement, makes your workforce more productive and satisfied and has even shown lower turnover rates.
The employer benefit of safety incentives
Successful safety incentive programs can yield an ROI of up to 400. The money saved from developing an effective safety incentive program which prevents accidents, increases engagement, and maintains morale far outweighs the costs associated with an accident itself. Inspirus, an employee engagement platform provider, shared a number of companies that reduced accidents with a safety incentives program, saving millions of dollars in wellness costs in the process. Let’s take a look at one example of a company who saw successful from implementing a safety incentive program:
Heartland Foods: Went from 285 lost-time injuries per year to just 14 after implementing a safety incentives program, and in the process saved $11,653,000.
The multi-generational workforce
To successfully increase engagement in a safety incentive program, it is important to know who you are trying to engage and their preferred "reward style" (i.e. the type of reward and how it is given). Different generations need to be segmented differently, as do different types of workers, like contingent vs. permanent workers. Each segment needs to be treated differently while valued equally.
Gift cards as safety incentives
A recent annual survey for EHS Daily Advisor revealed that gift cards was the most popular reward option in a safety incentive program. Gift cards can be customized, and the variety of options available with gift cards (restaurants, retailers, etc.) makes appealing to every audience easy. Gift cards can act as a tangible and instantaneous reward for specific actions and help to engage employees and truly reward them for specific safety behaviors.
Want to learn more about successfully implementing a safety incentive program?
Download Creating a Successful Safety Incentive Program to learn how utilizing a safety incentive program increases engagement and what rewards work best for your workers.
