3 Tips for a Successful Safety Incentive Program
A safety incentive program decreases losses for organizations by keeping employees safe, happy and at work. Implementing a successful safety incentive program has to work for your workforce and offer the right types of incentives to keep employees engaged. Here are 3 quick tips for ensuring success in your safety program.
Employee Incentives Keep Employees Happy and Working Hard
According to the new Ixaris Study of Reward & Incentive Preferences, which gathered responses from over 4800 employees form 4 countries (including the U.S. and Canada) employee incentives work in keeping employees satisfied and motivated. According to the survey 28.6% of U.S. employees indicated they had been rewarded or recognized. The more staggering numbers are that 70% of respondents indicated they put in extra effort when they know they are going to be rewarded. 80% of respondents indicated that incentives make them feel valued. Rewarding employees by treating them to something special. 70% of respondents indicated that when given cash rewards they used the reward just like regular pay, but over 75% of respondents indicated that gift card incentives were used to treat themselves to something special. Allowing employees to treat themselves to something special like a meal out with their families at
The Cheesecake Factory, or a shopping spree at
The Limited, or even a bouquet of flowers for a loved one from
1-800-Flowers is a great way to show employees you care, and that their efforts are valued above and beyond their standard compensation.
For more information on the Ixaris study or the positive impact of employee incentives check out this article from Incentive Magazine.
Informal Rewards Motivate Employees
Employee motivation is a great way to maintain positive morale, camaraderie and solid teamwork. However, too many employers get caught up in formal rewards with big price tags, when small, informal rewards can be just as effective and help a business save a lot of money. Here are a few ways to informally reward employees.
3 Signs of a Truly Loyal Employee
- They dissent and disagree: This seems counter-intuitive to employee loyalty, but an employee who can give honest opinions for the sake of building the team and making it better is more valuable than an employee that keeps quiet. Reward employees for making bold statements if it helps the company. Spot rewards for taking the risk, like a small denomination gift card to Speedway, 1-800-Flowers or
The Limited is a great way to reinforce important, but perceived high risk behavior. - They support the company in public: Everyone wants their fights and disagreements to stay behind closed doors. No matter what an employee thinks and says internally, to the outside world they show their appreciation with praise for the work environment and share knowledgeable facts about the company and products.
- They praise their peers: Peer-to-peer recognition programs are important and empowering. Peer recognition helps employees get to know each other and bond, while helping each other be and do the best they can. Encourage it by letting employees allot points to each other for later rewards.
Gamification Boosts Employee Engagement
We have talked quite a bit about gamification for all kinds of employee incentives in this space. But this is
big news. Adding gamification to an employee engagement strategy alone raises overall employee engagement by 29%. To quantify that in popular social media standards
, gamification raises social sharing on Facebook and Twitter by 22% and raises content exploration by 68% according to VentureBeat. So now that we know it works, and before everyone rushes to implement gamification and peer recognition programs
, it is important to understand
how gamification can raise the bar on your employee engagement initiatives. Gamification builds personal connections. In order for employees to compete against each other and recognize each other's accomplishments and good work
, they have to get to know each other. It is those relationships and increased peer interaction that keeps employees engaged at work. It also keeps them happy and loyal, so implementing gamification can be a great way to maintain a positive, productive and healthy work environment.
For more information on implementing gamification for increased employee engagement check out this article from Maritz Motivation Solutions.
