Employee Recognition & Engagement Resources

OSHA® – the Occupational Safety and Health Administration – recently announced some updates to their new Severe Injury Reporting Program, which requires companies to report any serious injury or hospitalization within 24 hours. The first year was found to be quite effective for the companies that complied. Unfortunately, not all businesses did. Thus, the agency announced that they would be issuing even more citations and increasing the amount of fines in the second year of the program

Measurement is an important part of any managerial process and forms the basis for continuous improvement. Measuring safety performance is no different. One way to improve the effectiveness of your safety program is to change the way it is measured.

For years, organizations measured safety performance by analyzing injuries that had already occurred, instead of measuring activities that could have been done to prevent workplace injuries in the first place. Historical data, such injury frequency and severity, first aid injury rate, OSHA recordables, LTA’s, andWorker’s Compensation costs were common points of analyzation.

According to the United States Department of Labor's Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), workplace injuries cost American businesses a hefty price. Employers pay out nearly $1 billion every week for direct workers' compensation costs. That does not include the additional costs incurred from medical expenses or legal services. Indirect costs add to the total: training replacement employees, accident investigations, utilizing corrective measures, a loss in productivity, repairs to damaged equipment and property, and costs associated with lower employee morale and absenteeism all cost even more

.

What I don’t always realize is that staying aware of safety-related issues shouldn’t end when I clock out on Friday afternoon. Maintaining a safe work environment, whether at work or at home, should be my top priority for both the well-being of myself and my family, as well as my job.

Here are a few tips that should always be applied when working around the house to ensure you get back to work on Monday in one piece.

As we’ve touched upon in our past blog entries, connectivity and ownership are vital to the concept of Safegagement^™. Not only should their presence resonate within every position, department and office setting, but connectivity and ownership also serves as our fifth and final component of Safegagement. Possibly the most important we will discuss, these two elements have the power to truly ignite individuals and unlock their potential.

Safegagement™, a concept developed by Jeff Ross, CPA, CRP (our President/CFO), occurs when engaged employees are safer at work and make better decisions because they care about those they work with, the company they work for, and the overall accomplishments of the organization. This is the fourth post in a series where we discuss the Five Components of Safegagement. As we near the end of our series, we hope you're gaining a clear understanding of how the Five Components of Safegagement work together. Alone, each component holds enormous potential for your workforce and their overall quality of life, both in and out of the workplace. However, when these components are combined and instilled as one, they can truly help your company accomplish a safe and engaging work environment for all.

Do you ever find yourself asking how you can help increase employee engagement and create a safe environment? One of the most effective means of accomplishing this is through a points-based safety incentive program designed with measurable rules to engage your employees and reward them with points they can redeem for desirable merchandise. When coupled with a comprehensive Safegagement strategy, this program helps create a culture of recognition and boosts morale in the workplace.

This type of employee recognition program has proven time and again how effective it can be to ensure proper actions among employees. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA said, “A positive incentive program encourages or rewards workers for reporting injuries, illnesses, near-misses, or hazards; and/or recognizes, rewards, and thereby encourages worker involvement in the safety and health management system. Such an incentive program can be a good thing and an acceptable part of a (VPP) quality safety and health system.”

Recently, we introduced you to Safegagement™. A key component to building a safe and engaging environment, leading indicators promote continuous improvement by drawing attention to successes—both big and small. Today, however, we will be focusing on the second component -- Comprehensive Training. 

As we continue our series highlighting the 5 key pillars of Safegagement^™, an overarching theme begins to take shape. Placing value both in your employees’ abilities and the work they do instills an unwavering sense of pride and self-worth—two vital factors to consider when building a safe and engaging work environment. 

As you’ll see, this sentiment is once again on display in our next pillar, Positive Reinforcement. Often times, companies will simplify this powerful concept by distilling it down to monetary and tangible efforts. However, this is an all too critical mistake as this is an idea that goes far beyond annual bonuses and free coffee in the break room and one that will make all the difference in your ongoing engagement efforts.

For decades, C.A. Short Company has been assisting various organizations with their safety and incentive programs. Each day we aim to help facilitate and execute companies’ ongoing initiatives, while assisting employees and managers to better mitigate risk. Through years of experience, we have realized that the companies that truly thrive are those who go one step further and engage their employees on every level. Utilizing this knowledge, we developed a powerful new concept aimed at helping every brand build upon these universal successes.