Do Safety Gimmicks Work

When companies are encouraged to depress their accident rates, there is an incentive for covering-up accidents, particularly small incidents and problems that may lead to larger losses. Instead, companies should focus on developing a framework to identify and reduce hazards on a continuing basis. Workers and managers should jointly perform regular surveys of hazards and abate them or report them before accidents occur.

This formal surveillance process can be developed with the expertise of a safety professional and with assistance from management and experienced workers. The procedure should include monitoring employees’ actions, as well as workplace conditions, with the help of safety checklists designed by employees and supervisors. Also, employers must analyze data from accident reports and first-aid logs to learn from past experience. Near misses should be reported and analyzed as well.

OSHA and the insurance carriers do focus on lost-time injuries, but it is important for companies not to succumb to the pressure of only using this gauge as a means of evaluating safety performance. Other, more imaginative measures can be used.

One insurance expert recommends tallying hazard rates by dividing the number of hazards found by some measure of exposure, like sales volume or number of hours worked. Develop charts that show how the hazard rate has changed over time. Take photographs of hazards that have been or will be removed.

Incentives or “gimmicks” do work—but only if they are used to enforce positive behavior rather than cover-ups. Establish targets for your company using hazard rates and reward workers for good performance. Use a safety contest as a theme for your next safety meeting.

Frequent and widespread rewards work best. One company ran a contest among its workers for “Neatest Workstation of the Week.” The contest was designed to minimize hazards, not reduce accident rates.

A consistent safety process that focuses on identifying hazardous conditions or unsafe acts, rather than short-term rewards for reducing lost-time injury rates will provide a sound basis for a workplace accident prevention program.

Safety Meeting Checklist

• Does your company provide rewards for safety?
• Do you change the rewards frequently?
• Do you spread out the rewards among different categories and winners?
• Do you avoid rewarding employees for underreporting injuries?
• Do you encourage employees to report near misses?
• Do you investigate near misses just like an actual incident?
• Do you keep up enthusiasm in the contests by making them interesting and varying the types of challenges?
• Do your employees conduct their own safety inspections on a regular basis?
• Do your employees help you develop safety inspection checklists?
• Do you analyze contests frequently to see if they are working?
• Do your employees regularly report hazards to you?
• Do your employees feel comfortable providing safety suggestions?
• Do you coordinate the contests with the safety talk or theme for the week or month?
• Do you sometimes provide contests that the employees’ families can participate in?
• Do you regularly analyze data from accident reports and first-aid logs to learn from past experience?
• Do your contests promote a positive attitude toward safety?