The purpose of a safety incentive program is to encourage employees to adhere to safety protocols and additional safety training. Providing prizes for those who adhere to safety standards and regulations can significantly boost employee buy-in. Even if you already have a safety incentive program in place, there are ways to improve it and achieve greater safety ratings.
1. Communicate the Importance of Reporting Accidents
If employees get injured and choose not to report it, this can snowball into a disaster for both the employee and the company. What might seem like a mild injury to the employee may become a very expensive problem over time. Following are a few benefits of reporting accidents:
- Identify Threats: Reporting accidents provides your organization with opportunities to take preventative and corrective actions on organizational threats. Threats may include faulty equipment, inappropriate behavior, or a lack of safety training.
- Encourage Improvement: Minor incidents are often symptoms of a larger problem. Reports can provide you with relevant data which can be used to find gaps in existing safety training protocols.
- Emphasize Urgency: Writing an incident report gives the occurrence a sense of urgency as opposed to someone merely mentioning it. Legally documenting incidents helps ensure that something is done to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
These are just a few of the benefits that come with communicating the importance of reporting accidents, and you’re liable to discover many more.
2. Get Management Involved
Employees are unlikely to take safety protocols seriously if their managers don’t believe in them and stand behind them. It’s important to gain the trust of your employees and for them to see safety prioritized by leadership. Following are some of the benefits of getting management involved in your safety incentive program:
- Increased Commitment to Safety: When managers are actually involved in safety incentive programs, it sends the message to employees that safety is a top priority for the company. Expect to see increased commitment to safety at all levels of the company.
- Improved Communication: Managers can help improve communication about safety between employees and management, which can lead to the identification of safety hazards early on.
- Enhanced Program Effectiveness: Safety incentive programs can be implemented more effectively if managers are involved. They can provide valuable input into the design of the program and help ensure that the program is aligned with the overall goals of the organization and the employees.
Don’t underestimate the power of getting managers more involved in your safety incentive program as their involvement can lead to far better safety adherence.
3. Reward Employees for Safety Training
Consider the biggest safety risks at your organization, and consider providing an incentive such as the Engage2Reward™ Choice Card for training. For example, if back injuries are commonplace within your organization, you can reward them for taking proper posture or proper handling training. Benefits of rewarding employees for safety training include:
- Increased Employee Engagement: Rewarding employees for safety training can get them more engaged with the overall safety program and can encourage them to participate in safety training in the future.
- Improved Safety Culture: By creating a safety incentive program that rewards employees for safety training, it sends the message that you place a high priority on safety in the workplace. This will encourage employees to take a more active role in workplace safety.
- Reduced Workplace Accidents: More safety training completed will translate to more safety competence in the workplace. By rewarding employees for safety training, you can improve the chances of safety training completion and reduce the number of accidents.
By rewarding employees for completing safety training, you can help to create a culture of safety, increased employee engagement, and an overall reduction in workplace accidents.
4. Digitize Your Program
To get the most out of your safety incentive program, consider digitizing it so that you can streamline the tracking and management of safety data for maximum efficiency. Benefits of digitizing your program include:
- Improved Tracking and Recording: Digitizing your safety incentive program can take all the guesswork and human error out of the equation. This also enables your organization to quickly identify safety trends as well as potential hazards so you can take proactive steps to address them.
- Increased Participation: By making it easier to track progress, you’re enabling your employees to track progress, earn rewards, and monitor performance with minimal effort.
- Improved Program Effectiveness: By being able to track and review real-time data and insights, your organization can be prepared to make adjustments on the fly. This along with the overall ease of communicating safety information make the program that much more effective.
Digitizing your safety incentive program can provide these benefits as well as additional unintended positive consequences.
Conclusion
Creating or improving up on an existing safety incentive program is crucial to your organization’s safety and productivity. By implementing these strategies, organizations can create a safer workplace, reduce accidents, and improve overall employee satisfaction and productivity.
Shop the Engage2Reward™ Choice Card Today.
The Engage2Reward card gives you total flexibility and choice! Redeem it for an eGift card from over 250 retailers on eGifter.com or in our mobile apps, ranging from Amazon.com to Darden Restaurants.
