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Why
Safety Pays | History | Program Design
Program
Design
The
Safety Pays program is based on one fundamental principle: human
beings respond to whatever is in their self-interest, and as applied
specifically to employment, their financial self-interest. The root
of the worker's compensation problem for every company is the fact
that a state-mandated system exists which fosters an employee's
sense of entitlement. This situation is intensified by the numerous
law firms which appeal to a worker's perception, real or imagined,
that his "self-interest" is better represented by them than by the
employer. In order to combat this, a company is left with one of
several choices.
It can do nothing. Although
at first blush, this may seem ridiculous, it is more the rule than
the exception. Afterall, with the numerous challenges which confront
a company in today's economic climate, more often than not management's
attention is focused primarily on issues relating to its product
or service and the financing, marketing and operational problems
inherent thereto. It believes that through a competitive wage/benefits
package its workforce is provided fair and reasonable compensation.
For many, because workers compensation is a no-choice proposition,
it's easy to simply accept claims exposure as a cost of doing business.
Invariably, their solution is to pass any increased workers compensation
costs on to the consumer, assuming of course, their market will
allow it.
The second option is rather punitive in
nature. This is a largely reactive approach whereby an
employer places heavy emphasis on warnings, probation, suspension
and/or termination as punishment for any act or attitude which is
perceived to be not in the interest of the company. Usually most
workers compensation claims are vigorously denied by businesses
subscribing to this methodology unless there is clear and present
evidence of an actual accident being the cause of an alleged injury.
Obviously this course of action only serves to further polarize
the employer/employee relationship, increasing mutual distrust and
lowering morale.
A third alternative is to promote safety
within a given work environment. A great deal of time
and money is allocated to incorporate training, inspections, posters,
handbooks, and hazard communication systems into a grand design
to educate and encourage safety, with the hoped-for result of minimizing
claims exposure. Although costly, this does have a beneficial impact.
It can also be tremendously frustrating because the degree by which
claims are reduced is often negligible or incremental at best. Though
subtle the reasons are logical. Most people honestly believe their
behavior is already safe enough and no amount of education, training,
or motivational communication will change that. Ask any smoker or
driver that doesn't wear a seatbelt. Although we do recommend this
third alternative as part of an integrated approach to claims reduction,
it by itself still misses the mark as far as appealing directly
to an employee's self-interest is concerned.
Safety Pays offers a fourth alternative
which addresses this directly. The formula is simple:
An employee works at a job in order to make money. To advance and
make more, he intensifies his output both in terms of the quantity
and quality of his work. Certainly then, the odds for achieving
a goal of claims reduction and increased safety is vastly increased
if each employee knows whatever effort he contributes will be rewarded.
Safety Pays is therefore designed to link financial incentives available
to a company's workforce in direct proportion to the extent to which
claims exposure is reduced. Although this is accomplished through
a number of dollar motivations, the primary mechanism is "bingo,"
a game with which virtually every person is intimately familiar
and enjoys.
The reason the Safety Pays use of bingo succeeds as an incentive
device lies in the simplicity of its application. Every employee
is a participant. Because bingo is purely a game of chance, every
employee has an equal opportunity to win. At the beginning of the
first game, a minimal jackpot is established (eg. $25.00). Each
work day at a time when most of the workforce is present (shift
breaks, etc.), a number is drawn. Every day, the jackpot is incrementally
increased (eg. $1.00 per day). When an individual scores a "bingo",
he wins whatever is in the jackpot. The following work day, a new
game begins using the previous game's final jackpot as the new base.
This process continues with the jackpot level growing as high as
there are consecutive accident/injury free days. BUT, if an injury
occurs, the current jackpot level returns to the original base in
the first game ($25.00). Claims prevention and safety suddenly takes
on a whole new meaning to the employee who's holding a bingo card
that's one number away from winning him a significant amount of
money!
The Safety Pays motivational approach works because it targets employee
self-interest while creating an atmosphere which unites everyone
toward a common goal. A sense of teamwork and "esprit de corp" grows
as each person realizes that the way to preserve the ever-growing
pot of money is to watch each other and work together to reduce
the possibility of someone being hurt. Peer group pressure is created
to avoid taking short-cuts in one's approach to doing a job safely.
More importantly, the individual who at one time alleged the occasional
"backache" in order to get a couple of extra days off, will be hard-pressed
to do so when his co-worker's are anticipating a financial windfall
by winning a jackpot.
Having established such an environment, the Safety Pays program
has a number of additional motivational tools which only further
enhance the opportunity for claims reduction. Second only to an
employee's desire to make money is his need for recognition and
appreciation by both his employer and fellow workers. To meet these
needs, the Safety Pays program provides winner acknowledgements
which are posted at the conclusion of each game. More importantly,
Safety Pay$ has installed a unique feature which rewards those employees
who bring safety suggestions to the attention of management.
Utilizing a "bonus" application already incorporated into the bingo
mechanism, those employees who make the effort to bring positive
safety changes to the workplace are rewarded with extra bingo cards
which not only double their chances to win, but provide "guaranteed
bonus dollars" should any employee win with such a card. Furthermore,
these employees are "recognized" during each game by having their
names written on the "Game Board" along with the amount of guaranteed
bonus dollars available to them should they win. Rewarding such
positive behavior reinforces the individual employee's effort and
has a dramatic ripple effect on his co-workers. Anxious for the
additional opportunities to win and hungry for the recognition that
making a safety suggestion can bring, other workers soon follow
suit. In other words, nothing breeds success like success itself.
In very little time, a company which may have earlier found itself
at odds with its employees over worker's compensation costs, is
now a cohesive team working with a sense of unity and enthusiasm
toward a common goal. Quite literally, through the use of Safety Pays, what was once a tremendous liability becomes an incredibly
valuable asset. In addition to the dramatic savings in workers comp
premium costs, an environment has been established which is more
productive and responsive to the company's needs.
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