Workplace Safety Incentives Since 1991
One of the most common concerns safety professionals have when considering any safety incentive program is whether it will somehow motivate a given group of workers not to report injuries if and when they occur.
For a complete understanding of how Safety Pays avoids this problem, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions section. But as the old saying goes, "The test of the pudding is in the tasting!" We'd therefore like to share some of the things our customers have had to say about not just how Safety Pays avoids non-reporting of injuries. In fact, here's a testimonial which spoke to how Safety Pays actually enhanced and improved on-the-job employee injury reporting!
...because the failure to report a work-related injury is a violation of our safety rules, (which an employee can lose their game card for) we have seen an improvement in the reporting of injuries and we have a much better grasp on the incidents and injuries occurring at our facilities as compared to before we implemented the Safety Pays program!
Thomas A. Hunn, Human Resources Generalist, Wisconsin Valley Concrete Products Co.
Like you, many potential Safety Pays customers were worried about employee injury hiding. Here's a letter from a company which immediately discovered how this problem is overcome:
Prior to working with your program I was not in favor of offering financial rewards for safety. I was concerned that employees might not report incidents due to repercussions from their teammates. Instead ...we have definitely noticed an enhanced safety attitude. Our employees are encouraging each other, watching for unsafe acts, and offering physical help when needed to be sure everyone is performing their jobs in the safest manner possible.
- Janice Russell, Human Resources Manager, Maxxim Medical
Want further proof? Here's a letter from one of the country's largest nursery and landscaping operations:
...You may remember, that prior to implementation I mentioned that there were skeptics at Bachman's, all of whom were well intentioned with respect to our need to improve safety. You are familiar with one of the common criticisms - that the incentive would have the undesired effect of discouraging the reporting of legitimate injury accidents. To the contrary, reported injuries dropped by 30% - a significant decrease, but less than half the rate in decrease that we saw in lost days (74%). We think that this demonstrates that employees still report injuries, but that they are simply more careful overall...
- John T. Oberhausen, Human Resources Director, Bachman's, Inc.
Even the New York Times quotes one of our customers who explained the only type of peer group impact they experienced is not only minimal but in the spirit of fun. This ones again goes to show that the peer group environment which Safety Pays creates is both healthy and harmonious, rather than creating undue pressure or negative influence:
At FTT Manufacturing in Genesco New York, which makes high-precision parts for many industries, the safety bingo pot starts at $25 and increases. The game was set-up for FTT by an outside firm, Safety Pays. Within a year of introducing the game, Wade Smith, co-director of FTT's safety program stated injuries fell by a third. Further, Smith said injured employee are never subjected to more that some good-natured locker-room pressure.
