Prior to launching a safety incentive program, make sure you have these steps in place:
Upper-Management Buy-In: For a successful safety incentive program you must have upper-level management behind the program. If your employees know how important the program is to the president, then they know it should be important to them.
Safety Policy: Write a safety policy that you expect your employees to adhere to.
Invest in the Program: Time, personnel, events, motivation, meetings, and money are just a few of the factors that must be considered before pursuing a safety incentive program.
Research Safety Incentive Vendors: Pursue a cloud-based software system that allows you to process and manage your employees by a click of a button.
Set-up Measurable Rules: Base rules on both leading and lagging indicators.
All employees want to feel like they are part of a team. It might be a hard task when you have hundreds of employees at different locations, but that is why it is crucial to communicate and bring awareness of the organizational safety incentive program. Below are a few ways to help raise employee engagement you may consider organizing:
Show the employees how they will be rewarded for participating. In our case, we reward employees with a Safety Points Program and they can redeem their points for merchandise from an online catalog or a bound catalog.
Promote the program with posters, banners, Digital TV Slides, and email campaigns.
Send employees quarterly statements to let them know their account activity.
Set-up a computer that connects to your company Intranet so your employees can view their Safety Account and the Awards they can redeem.
Conduct weekly “Safety Huddles” to stress the importance of the safety program.
Recognize employees if you see them performing a safe act by giving them an Instant Award Card.
If you do not have an existing safety incentive program, take your time and do your homework. Make sure you know what you want to measure and what's your budget. To increase the awareness of your existing safety incentive program, update the program periodically and communicate with your employees at home and at work.