# Safety Incentive Program..Any Ideas?



## Jason-F (Jul 4, 2009)

*Safety Incentive Program..Any Ideas?* Hey guys, hope everyone had a great christmas and is well on thier way to recovery and ready to get back to buisness.

I am looking at implementing a safety program based on incentive in my company in the new year and was wondering if anyone on here already had a program in place.

I pay my crews on a peice rate system so was thinking that if they were working safe and had all thier PPE on and no incidents they would be payed a "certified" rate, But if someone was involved in a incident or was caught without thier PPE,(ie. Not wearing thier harness or safety glasses) then they would receive a lower "Un-Certified" Rate for the job. 

I feel this would provide the foremen with the proper incentive to ensure everyone is wearing thier PPE and working safe.

Any other idea's, systems that are currently working for you? 

Also I was wondering how to approaching fall arrest training. Others who have implemented this as a part of your company do you make all employees take it, just foremen or just yourself? There is no mandate in the OH&S code that requires it, but I am just trying to cover my ass here incase something ever does happen.


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## Cairncross (Nov 16, 2010)

Joke:
Tell them if they fall, they're fired before they hit the ground....
That's what my boss used to say to me. Of course he didn't mean it. 
Fostering good safety practices is good business.
We dont incentivize safety as we think health is a pretty good incentive. Training, practicing, weekly safety meetings, and documenting makes a good safety program for us.

We do incentivize employees to prevent warranty issues by training, and distributing profit share, along with a spreadsheet of warranty issues and costs and how that affects their profit share. Warranty costs have fallen.


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

Jason-F said:


> *But if someone was involved in a incident or was caught without thier PPE,(ie. Not wearing thier harness or safety glasses) then they would receive a lower "Un-Certified" Rate for the job.*


*

Don't know about Canada, but I don't think that would be legal here. Instead, most employers (who want to differentiate) have a bonus system, where workers have a standard base pay, but get a bonus for an infraction-free record. And of course that can be divided into none/some/many for various levels of bonus.*


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## Jason-F (Jul 4, 2009)

O my bad, Your right you can't pay someone less for being involved in a incident so that wouldn't be part of the program.

You can however pay someone less for being less qualified(like a apprentice only gets 60% of jorneyman wages without the ticket) & you can pay someone less if they are notified and dont have the right gear.....(example. A employee with a truck may be payed more than a employee without a vehicle). Same precident can be used to validate paying someone less for not wearing the proper PPE.

I just had several problems getting employees to stay tied off whenever 6 ft off the ground last season so I am trying the remedy the situation with a incentive.


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## Tinstaafl (Jan 6, 2008)

Jason-F said:


> You can however pay someone less for being less qualified(like a apprentice only gets 60% of jorneyman wages without the ticket) & *you can pay someone less if they are notified and dont have the right gear...*


Agree with the former, disagree with the latter. We are not allowed to dock an employee's pay for anything I can think of offhand. Whatever hours he works, he gets paid for at the rate he was hired at.

We have a zillion ways we can _add_ to his pay, though.

It works out the same way if you just present it properly. A total screw-up earns his base pay and nothing more. A good [standard] worker earns base pay plus "standard" bonuses for doing what he's supposed to. And a truly exemplary, over and above messiah gets a _real_ bonus, because he earned the company more money than expected.

You can work those bonuses on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis depending on the type of employee you're dealing with.


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## ziemer (Jan 19, 2011)

There's a large Electrical company down here in Florida that maintains a "safety kitty", every month the company goes without an accident, and set dollar amount is deposited into this kitty. Then, at the end of the year, they raffle off select cash and prizes to all that were not involved in an accident all year.

This particular company was failry large, so their year end kitty, was in the 30+ thousand dollar range.

Unfortunately, you almost have to incentivize it to some level because, the Mod rates for workers comp will kill ya if you can't keep the guys safe.


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## mrghm (Nov 19, 2006)

big job we were on they gave out gift cards to one trade everymonth who was deemed to be "safest" ie higest rating in there audits.

gift cards were used mostly by foreman who won the price the men did not get much,

it was good to see all the sub's foreman into saftey at the weekly trade meeting,


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## Electric_Light (Nov 25, 2007)

Many grocers around here have conspicuous signs that lists # of days without injuries by department and I think the employees get rewarded somehow, so they'll have some form of peer pressure. If someone is horse playing and gets hurt, they get to be the party pooper that ruined the award for everyone. 

Labor law prohibits retaliation for making use of workers' compensation, but giving reward for having a good safety record isn't banned.

I'd say reward system is a better approach than a punitive system. Just so that the team with the worst track record won't keep it up, you could set up a reward for teams/trades with the best improvement along with others.


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