Afernoon
Tried it. Dropped it. Never doing it that way again.
Workers - regardless of the role or position - started to focus on the prize rather than the activity. Lost the plot.

If - and it's a big if - I was asked to consider it again, my suggestion would be donating whatever to a charity or not-for-profit organisation selected by the worker/workers with points given or removed when activities are achieved or missed. That way the eye is still on the activity with the prize a helping bonus for others.

Just my 2 cents.

We have moved ours to include just daily performance and attitude towards fellow workers, contractors, and customers, so the HSEQ component is still there.

Still needs to be closely monitored to filter out the show ponies...

Maybe not quite what you are looking for; I implemented this around four years ago.
Anyone on site (commercial construction) can issue a "safety plus card" whenever they see something or someone does something good.
The card is in two parts, one half for the staff receiving the card to have and one part for the issuer to write the receiver's name and what was seen/done. This part of the card is then given to the site manager.
Each week, at the toolbox talk, all returned cards are talked about, and everyone who got a card gets a chocolate fish.
Each month, all cards are put in a "hat", and one card is drawn out. the winner receives a $200 grocery voucher or meat pack
Having a chocolate inspired weekly prize removes the incentive to do it for the prize, and any suggestion of favouritism is removed by randomly drawing the monthly winner. the best sites give out 15-20 chocolate fish each week (most sites have over 100 people on them)
The sites that use the system also get effective two-way communication at the toolbox talks. the banter and feedback a chocolate fish creates is quite incredible!

Hi Robb
this is a great idea, and I can switch it to get engagement from our H&S Reps on site.

@rebecca telfer
OSH Online have this coming up - Safety Incentives: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
https://1105tech.com/portal/wts/ucmcmQejrvmbcyobczq-2d2R%5E9vfbE4m~rrTr3m4d

Looks like an interesting webinar Keith, well spotted.

A cunning tip if you are posting a link and it's a meaningless mixture of letters numbers etc, type in the link title, right click and run your mouse cursor over the text you've just entered and copy it into your clip board, release the right button.
Go up to the wee tool bar at the text entry box, and left click the link symbol, paste your link text into the link box that opens Once it's opened and you've pasted your text,go to the page of your discovery and copy the webpage address into your clip board, go back to the forum page and paste the link into the link box, click Go and it writes the right html language into your post, and then it's a done deal.

Safety Incentives: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Doing this makes links look prettier as above, and can ease link anxiety, the fear of clicking

why not recognise their engagement by supporting and funding their professional development instead? You are likely to get more buy in, more loyal staff, and get a great name for supporting your workers, thereby attracting better staff as well.

I just wonder about the potential long-term impact of implementing incentives for trying to get people to adopt desired safety behaviours. Ultimately, we aim for people to operate from an internal locus of control, including internalised understanding and commitment, rather than based on external locus of control. Once you create an expectation of being rewarded for those behaviours, have we created a dependency? Are you going to have to give rewards for every single action you want? What will happen when / if the reward is no longer available to them? Will rewards need to keep increasing in order to gain the interest? And what would differentiate a bribe from a reward?? I'm genuinely interested to hear what others think.

I remember one of my own trainers advising us to be very careful with setting up any kind of rewards programme - he mentioned a book called something like Punish With Rewards - might be worth doing some further research.

I've come across Bill Sims, his book and his recognition and rewards programme many years ago, and I even facilitated his visit to NZ. Although the core psychology behind his programme makes sense, it might also be useful to remember that his main frame of reference is an American workplace culture and economy, we also should be mindful of the long-term outlook, not just a 'quick fix' reward of short duration.

I have previously been an accredited facilitator for the NZ Certificate of Applied Leadership, and the programme included some interesting sections about motivation and recognition and rewards. Did you know that the most effective form of recognition costs nothing yet is most often passed over by managers?

Research showed that the most valued form of recognition is a personal and sincere thanks for a job well done! This was also rated among the top three of what mattered most to employees - managers somehow valued it most highly for themselves but assumed employees thought money was most important (Money IS important, but it only ranked 5th - the first three included sincere thanks for a job well done, help with personal problems (i.e., flexibility to accommodate personal issues like a sick child or a school meeting, etc), and having a say in decisions that affected their work - all of these are about caring for people and building trust).

The long-term sustainable solution is to develop effective leadership and management skills, and build a culture of trust and connection. To quote a well-known shampoo advertisement, "It won't happen overnight, but it WILL happen." It starts from the expectations set by leaders, and is built day-by-day through consistent standards and behaviours.

The most successful initiative that I was involved in developing when in the UK was one which recognised staffs positive behaviours and actions by making donations to several local charities each year. Each recognised safe behaviour/action equated to a £1 donation.

The initiative was practically run with very little H&S Staff involvement and had longevity because the workers were involved at every step of the way, starting with which charities they want to donate to (the "why" behind the choices became a very powerful driver).

Hi, we run a "Celebrate Safety at Hills" program.

Nominations for recognition examples:
1. Process that worked well eliminating or minimising risk.
2. Team activity/task/work that encouraged safety behaviour.
3. A process that can be duplicated in another area to eliminate or minimise risk.

The award can be individual or a team, we have a trophy for 1st, and a smaller trophy for the runner up. We are fortunate to have a cafeteria and first place winner/team are shouted for lunch.

First year we only had 4 nominations. Second year 8 and this year currently at 12 and still open till end October.

Kind regards
Sandra

Reps doing their job and thinking they are helping keep people safe should I would have thought be incentive enough.

Our advocates (we don't allow Reps) don't get anything. The exception is if I have given them a commitment and I don't meet that commitment by the due date they get cake at our next meeting.

Reps doing their job and thinking they are helping keep people safe should I would have thought be incentive enough. — Andrew

Is part of the problem that a lot of organisations have strayed away from the intended purpose of H&S Representation - with most of these roles now being a mouthpiece of "management" rather than actually advocating for the needs of the workers they are representing?

It would be interesting to hear the split of time that H&S reps spend on communicating the latest company safety initiative (or similar) vs listening to their work-groups H&S issues and working with management to actually address those issues?

I expect mine to 100% be listening to their work groups and raising the issues/ideas those people don't feel so inclined to raise otherwise

I expect mine to 100% be listening to their work groups and raising the issues/ideas those people don't feel so inclined to raise otherwise — Andrew

Problem is you always seem to be the exception to the rule @Andrew :wink:

Peter Drucker wrote about the "worker's letter". This was written by a senior manager (preferably the CEO) to recognise something above and beyond expectations. The senior manager would call out the recipient during a tea break or similar and present the letter. Done well everyone knew what "good" looked like and the file copy came out during the annual performance review.

Hi,

We have several recognition here for HSRs and staff. We have a hazard/done it card system which rewards staff with a freebie from the cafeteria. We also have a company wide awards for Health and Safety Champion as part of our wider yearly awards ceremony. This has a significant cash reward and trophy for the winner and runner-up and can be anyone who has contributed to H&S. Each year staff nominate candidates for various categories. The selected winners head up to our leaders forum. They get to meet our various staff from across the nation, watch all the presentations for projects happening, and finally get to do a big ceremonial dinner with the rest of the company where they will meet board members and executives. It's a pretty big eye opener for them as quite often they are not expecting it and don't normally get to meeting everyone else.

If I hadn't been nominated one year and won I would never have considered changing my career to health and safety. Happy to say I've been in my H&S role now for three years and can't wait to continue progressing.

Our HSRs are also supported by our integrated culture. HSRs are involved with our regional safety team, critical risk teams, safety leadership teams and working groups. Any additional work or projects they decide to partake in goes towards their yearly development reviews which in turns helps with career progression. If HSRs have a certain aspects they wish to train further in we also support them finding the right courses. HSRs are fully supported by our H&S team.

FYI - For anyone looking at the way HSRs are integrated into a company and how the company can work better with HSRs to help make changes, Worksafe have a specific research group we were put in contact with. This has been really helpful for us and HSRs now have another contact they can use. If you want more information then contact Ali Whitton (AlidotWhittonatworksafedotgovtdotnz). He wants to understand how systems work and him and his team are developing new resources for HSR which will be free for everyone to use.

Cheers,