MODULE 3: EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT

Reactive safety incentive programs

In Module One we talked about the concepts of reactive and proactive safety programs. Safety incentive programs may reflect aspects of one or the other, or (more likely) both. It depends on the behaviors that incentives and recognition are being rewarded in the program. No matter the approach, incentive and recognition programs always motivate some kind of behaviors. The trick is to motivate proactive behaviors.

Believe it or not, most companies design and implement reactive safety incentive programs. In reactive incentive and recognition programs workers are usually rewarded for "working safe" over a given period of time. (I bet you're familiar with this incentive.) Well, frankly it's not appropriate, and here's why: Working safe, a behavioral concept, is commonly defined in a reactive program as an outcome or a condition such as, "working a year without getting hurt," or "working injury free."

Consequently, employees work towards that result, and if they're motivated, they may use any strategy to achieve that result. The most common strategy is to withhold injury reports. That's right! Look for a banner or a sign that says, "80 bazillion work hours without an accident!" When you see that, you'll know the company is employing a reactive approach to motivate employees. Sure, the company might have actually achieved 80 bazillion hours without a reported accident, but that doesn't mean the workplace is accident free. It may mean accidents aren't being reported. In reality, the workplace may be full of the "walking wounded" who don't report an injury or illness.

The problem is inherent in the approach. In an effort to win, be team players and loyal co-workers, or in response to negative peer pressure, workers do not report their injuries. They do not want to ruin the safety record. In some instances peer pressure is so great they will not report an injury until the pain becomes severe: something they can no longer hide. Consequently, the actual number of injuries in the workplace may decline, but the severity of each reported injury increases, and becomes much more costly. In these instances, everybody loses.