The idea of offering incentives to promote improved safety performance has long been a topic of heated debate.  Some suggest that they don’t motivate al all, that they contribute to the hiding of incidents, increase negative peer pressure to under-report, and that they reward the wrong things or the wrong people.  Others point to research, and results in the field that suggest incentives do work.  Wherever you are on the debate, like all programs, incentive initiatives must be well planned and executed to satisfy a set of reasonable criteria and standards.

In the Art of Safety incentives are mentioned in the chapter on safety meetings, but not fully discussed.  The workshop by the same name goes into greater depth regarding the 15 essential criteria for an effective incentives program and also includes the following checklist of the 15 characteristics that the rewards offered by an incentive program need to satisfy.

If you’re currently running, or plan to initiate an incentives program, consider checking the intended rewards against the checklist to see how they measure up.

Rewards Checklist

    - Rewards the bottom line

    - Attractive to the participants

    - Incorporates progressive safety credits

    - Simple rules

    - Perceived as equitable

    - Perceived as attainable

    - Short accident-free eligibility period

    - Rewards group and individual performance

    - Operators participated in program design

    - Prevents incident under reporting

    - Rewards all levels of the organization

    - Maximizes the primary goal (net savings or benefit/cost)

    - Includes a research component

    - Encourages wellness participation

    - Clearly defines criteria and points, earned or lost