Considerations for Safety Program Incentives in the Workplace

Implementing a safety program in the workplace is necessary to helping prevent injuries for employees. Unfortunately, many employees don’t take safety programs seriously and may go out of their way to ignore them if they feel requirements of a safety program make their job more difficult for any reason.

Encourage Employee Participation

It can be difficult to get all employees on board for participation in safety programs. Even though they are designed to prevent their own injuries – some people just don’t feel they’re necessary. Some employers have created safety program incentives to get employees participation. An example of an incentive may be if there are no worker’s comp claims in a certain number of days, perhaps the employer will issue gift cards to each employee for a local business.

Incentives May Interfere With Safety

The idea of incentives are good in that they generate interest in the safety program and become motivation for employees. Unfortunately, it may cause employees not to report injuries in the workplace if they’re trying to get gift cards, for example, which is actually an interference with safety programs rather than an incentive for following them. The focus becomes on the incentives themselves, and not on the safety programs and requirements for ensuring the safety of workers.

How to Make Effective Safety Programs

Instead of providing incentives that may encourage under reporting of injuries, ensure your employees are educated on the safety programs and requirements in the workplace. Have an employee hiring process that helps avoid the hiring of individuals who don’t put an emphasis on safety or who have a history of accidents. Perform pre-hire drug testing, and testing randomly throughout each employees time with the company.

When employees are trained, managers should focus on safety programs as part of the requirements for the position. Properly educating employees as to their risks on the job and how to work safely will improve participation in the program more than an incentive program will.

If you have been hurt on the job because safety practices were not being followed, it is important for you to protect your rights in a worker’s compensation or possible disability claim. Contact our office for a free evaluation of your potential case by calling us toll free at 866-205-2415 or using our confidential online form.