GiftCard Partners Blog

Worker safety programs can be controversial, but time and time again they prove their ROI. When safety incentives are implemented correctly, safety programs can extend and improve worker safety records. The money invested in incentivized safety programs is returned in lower insurance costs, a happier workforce, and improved safety in the workplace. Here are 3 steps to properly implement a worker safety program within your organization.
1. Make safety a core value. Making safety a core value at your organization, and reiterating safety messages constantly to employees will ingrain the safety programs message into employees professional mindsets. When safety is top of mind for employees the workplace becomes a safer place, mitigating risk and cost associated with unsafe working conditions.
2. Set high expectations for safe behavior. Safety programs should be something that employees strive to excel in. Maintain high expectations for safety programs, and use safety incentives when appropriate. Only giving out rewards for employees who do an exceptional job, in more of an ad-hoc fashion, can be equally effective as a formally structured incentivized safety program. As they won’t know when safety incentives will be rewarded, an ad-hoc approach will keep employees striving for better and better safety metrics.
3. Commit management to worker safety. Keeping management invested in promoting worker safety is a key to success. Employees notice when management cares about their safety, and that is extremely motivational to the general workforce. Having managers invest part of their budget in safety incentives shows a tangible commitment to worker safety and shows the workforce that management is committed to safety program incentives for exceptional work. Budget investments can be spent on small denomination gift cards to popular retailers such as 
The Limited, 
The Cheesecake Factory, and 
The Children's Place. Small rewards such as gift cards can go a long way in showing employee appreciation for organizational safety.

We’re finding that people are still questioning why companies across the U.S. are spending $22.7 BILLION
¹ on gift cards as incentives in corporate employee programs and what this segment of the B2B gift card market is all about. AND we’re also finding that corporations and companies of all sizes are STILL surprised to learn that there are savings to be had on bulk gift cards purchased for employee motivation, employee engagement, and employee rewards.  Why are 52% of U.S. businesses using gift cards to recognize and reward employees, sales folk, partners and customers.
² Dig deep into how gift cards are utilized in the workplace to motivate, incent, and reward in employee programs.[hs_action id="2877"] 1 & 2 Source: IRF Market Study: B2B Gift Cards

Gamification is a concept that is gaining popularity among employers to motivate employees to certain goals. Those goals can range from certain performance goals, to health and wellness goals, to workplace safety goals. Adding a gamification component to your workplace safety program can be a great way to keep safety top of mind for employees and decrease accident rates in your work space. Gamifying safety can be as simple as creating a public website, and for each day a worker, team of workers, or your entire workforce completes without an accident points can get added to a pool, which can then be cashed in for a variety of rewards. Some organizations opt for a more complex safety rewards game, creating teams, similar to fantasy sports, who compete against each other for points that can be later cashed in for rewards. This option allows the employer to track both individual and team performance, to find strengths and weaknesses organization-wide.

It’s not always easy to instill the message of safety within your workforce. So nip the issue in the bud from the very beginning: in the training process. Every employee who is required to follow the guidelines put forth in a safety program should go through this type of training. And to get the most out of this training
Safety Daily Advisor
put together,
50 Tips For More Effective Safety Training.
Here are a few do’s and don’ts from the report.
DO
give handouts,
DON’T
make them as hard to decipher as a 10 year olds art project.
Couple of interesting facts to consider, 90% of what people are told is forgotten within 24 hours and people process written information two times faster than the spoken word. Your handouts should reinforce your basic message, keep the attention of the reader, be easy to follow, and provide a reference point to readers in the future.
DO
consider using a little humor to reiterate your message,

but

DON’T
force it by incorporating
100 Funny Jokes to Tell Your Employees
book.
A little humor gives you the chance to wake up an audience that might be fading at the sight of too many safety statistics and OSHA guidelines. Experts say that using humor can relax an audience, making them more willing to participate. Which takes us to our next
DO.
DO
encourage interactive training,
DON’T
forget the incentives.
Encourage your workforce to get invested in their training program by getting creative with incentives. Create a short quiz at the end of each section, break the group into teams and play a trivial game about rules and statistics or have workers give safety demonstrations themselves. Then reward winners with small denomination gift cards to places like
CVS/pharmacy
or
AutoZone
.
Check out more great tips, news and advice for getting the most out of your company’s workplace safety program from
Safety Daily Advisors
.