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#1 Posted : 31 July 2001 09:38:00(UTC)
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Posted By Iain Macfarlane I posted this on the wrong forum - I'll try again! Has anyone implemented an H&S incentive scheme for managers and employees? If yes was it successful?
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#2 Posted : 31 July 2001 09:57:00(UTC)
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Posted By Mark Preston You might like to check out the US based Safety mailing list archive at UVM. http://siri.org/mail/index.html There's been lots of debate on this subject try a search using "incentive" as your term
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#3 Posted : 31 July 2001 10:25:00(UTC)
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Posted By Robert Woods These types of scheme are widely used in Germany. My understanding is that they don't reduce the actual number of accidents but reduce the amount of accidents reported. The loss of the bonus/incentive to the group puts pressure on the individual not to report minor accidents or near misses.
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#4 Posted : 31 July 2001 10:58:00(UTC)
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Posted By Nick Higginson From experience, I think H&S incentive schemes can be good if they are based on positive performance measures, and not negative. Things that could be measured are excellent h&s performance on inspections/tours etc., number of inspections/tours carried out by supervisors/managers, accident investigations carried out to necessary timescales etc.etc. What cannot be done is incentives based on accidents (even near misses can be dangerous, as near misses are then "engineered" or accidents are changed to near misses). I know a company that has offered prizes to people that don't have an accident in a 12 month period! As stated earlier, this has suppressed accident reporting, not accident occurences. This type of thing goes against everything we as safety proffessionals strive to achieve. As a point of interest, one of the criteria in the proprietary audit system ISRS (International Safety Rating System) asks if there is a method of rewarding employees for excellent health & safety performance (not accidents). From memory, I think its from the behavioural safety section. Regards, Nick
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#5 Posted : 02 August 2001 08:06:00(UTC)
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Posted By Iain Macfarlane Thanks for the feedback - I am aware of the pros and cons of incentive schemes but believe if used in the right way can help in the long term. I want to greatly increase management involvement, and would like to be able to monitor this, perhaps showing appreciation through incentives, based on various types of feedback, rather than on accident occurrences.
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#6 Posted : 03 August 2001 22:28:00(UTC)
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Posted By John Webster And if anyone thinks Nick and Robert are being a bit negative about rewards for not having accidents, I am aware of a guy who suffered a broken leg at work and was secretly stretchered offsite by his workmates so that they would not loose their safety bonus. He just told the hospital he had had the accident at home.
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#7 Posted : 04 August 2001 02:30:00(UTC)
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Posted By pschu Hi, An incentive scheme has been implemented in my company last year. Every monthly staff award US400 every three months provided that his work or responsible site(s) do not have any reportable accident. The result is that the accident rate of my company has been reduced nearly 70% up to now. Majority of small accident or near miss are not reported. Another incentive scheme is that all the daily paid workers award US160 every half year provided that the worker does not have any reportable accident. As this scheme has been implemented a number of years, the workers treat this award as a part of his salary. Incentive power is minimized. In my point of view, pay for safety scheme is suitable for safety promotion as a safety professioals. It can really encourage the site management to participate in the site safety activities such as joint site safety walk, site safety meeting, safety training and so on. Indeed, a tight monitoring system is a must, otherwise, all the above-mentioned activities are not effective and become paper work only. Such pay for safety scheme are better to be launched by the client and her resident staff can assist to monitor the actual performance. Regards, PS Chu
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#8 Posted : 04 August 2001 11:17:00(UTC)
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Posted By Nick Higginson PS Chu, I am not surprised the accident (reporting) rate has dropped by 70%!! However, liability will not have dropped! Surely this is festering a negative culture where free and open reporting is driven underground? As said before, this goes against everything we are trying to achieve. Nick
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#9 Posted : 04 August 2001 16:05:00(UTC)
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Posted By Ian Harper Try taking accidents out of incentives. An effictive scheme I havce seen used is to reward safe behaviours and achievements that are auditable and visable. Try and move away from incentives for no accidents because its an easy figure to massage. I worked on a site that required eye protection. We carried out audits and gave either a random bonus to individuals who were compliant or a donation to a charity. This means a lot of compliance during inspections and audits, but was effective. Depending on the level of compliance the managers bonus was worked out. If you base incentives on accidents, chances are you won't be there to see it for your self. If you look at poor standards, that can't be covered up when you visit.
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#10 Posted : 05 August 2001 14:27:00(UTC)
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Posted By Ian Waldram One organisation I worked with included a S/H/E element in the 'balanced scorecard' which was used to reward all employees with an annual bonus (or not, depending on what was achieved!). When we moved to this approach, we wanted to include SHE as we always said it should be managed in the same ways as other key business results. However, we didn't want to use accidents as the measure, for all the reasons others have given above. We decided to use the average annual SHE audit score (we had an internally-developed SHE Management System, with a relatively simple scoring arrangement, and each part of the business was audited annually). This proved to be a really good incentive for managers & supervisors initially, and each year the SHE performance was 'stretched', both by raising the target score, and also by continuously improving our audit arrangements and competence. However, after a few years, people tended to lose sight of WHY we had a SHE MS, and just tried to improve their audit score, and sometimes this didn't correlate with real improvements in safe working. Our conclusion is that leading indicators, like the activities required from managers & supervisors by a good SHE MS, can be used as the basis for a good incentive sheme, but that actual results, preferably including some kind of "accident potential" rather than just what actually happens, also have to be included. In other words, even the SHE Element within an overall 'balanced scorecard' has itself to be 'balanced', with both leading and lagging indicators, as well as measures which include H & E, not just S. I agree with others who have quoted their experiences of Safety incentive schemes which just result in less open/honest reporting. I have known this happen even in an organisation which tried to make it clear to managers by saying "If you report an accident in your area we will be disappointed, but if you fail to report one you will be sacked!"
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#11 Posted : 08 August 2001 11:07:00(UTC)
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Posted By Garry Begg Incentives scheme can work on the odd ocassion for example: Best score in a safety quiz, Best safety slogan. Prizes could be Day off, a meal for two etc. However I wouldn't recommend a money incentive. These are limited but do raise the profile of health and safety.
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