Posted By jmc Hi C. I concure there are health & safety commitees on some larger sites that reward individualls on a monthly basis for working in a safe manner. Also when I worked as a scaffolder at grangemouth a car, tv & other incentives were given to operatives as a reward for working safely and informing of unsafe working or a health & safety issue brought to the managements attention which could prevent an accident or even death. There are still alot of people on sites that don't give a dame about their own or others safety so if the responsible people are rewarded whilst working along side them we can get ride of them and make our workplaces alot safer. JMC

Posted By Merv Newman As a long time safety person, I've had to investigate a number of incidents. I have always asked "what went right ?" And made sure that got into the final report. A classic was our driver who managed to hit a lamp post full on. "What went right ?" "I was wearing my seat belt and wasn't hurt, even though both doors fell off." He had been driving a 2CV So yes. record and exploit all the positive stories you can get. Though I am veryveryvery much against data bases that record personal details. Merv

Posted By James P W This looks interesting, I've just been reading up about "Social Inclusion Theory" as part of my masters. As usual it (by virtue of being a piece of research) has its critics but in essence Social Inclusion is concerned with what makes 'groups' groups. Social EXclusion is a different, but related, topic altogether. Why do people feel motivated to join a group, what keeps them there and the social return of such groups. Research is generally linked to political examples but the principles apply equally to concepts such as On Track Record, safety teams and even...IOSH! In amongst 'social inclusion theory' is, with respect to the subject of this thread, the particularly interesting element of "Social Capital". Social Capital has varying definitions, but generally it reflects the gain and 'credential' (at various levels) from membership to a network of mutual acquaintance and recognition. That is to say, belonging can pay dividends to the individual but also contributes to the social strength and impact capabilities of the group. It's not an uncommon theory...the more people join the greater the social effect. Applied to the safe behaviours of individuals at work the 'social effect' could be incredibly productive. There are caveats along the way but provided they are dealt with there is no reason for this to return anything other than positive results. I hope it works. Jimmy

Posted By Kieran J Duignan Jimmy Your references to social inclusion are valuable but your conclusion ...'provided they are dealt,' etc. is open to question. If you read either 'Personality and the Fate of Organisations' (R Hogan, LEA, 2007) or 'The Elephant in the Boardroom' (A Furnham, 2009), you will see an analysis of structural reasons that actively prevent the 'dealing with' you refer to. Sadly, it is not unknown for some safety practitioners to avoid trying out straightforward preactical ways of gathering data in order to address obstacles about which they complain endlessly.