BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS:

Incentives

If properly used, incentives can help promote safety.

Safety is another issue that is being confronted using incentives. To promote safety effectively, incentives must be structured appropriately. The following strategies are recommended for enhancing the effectiveness of incentive programs:

1. Define objectives. Begin by deciding what is supposed to be accomplished by the incentive program.

2. Develop specific criteria. On what basis will the incentives be awarded? This question should be answered during the development of the program. Specific criteria define the type of behavior and level of performance to be rewarded and guidelines for measuring success.

3. Make rewards meaningful. For an incentive program to be effective, the rewards must be meaningful to the recipients. Giving an employee a reward that he or she does not value will not produce the desired results. To determine what types of rewards will be meaningful, it is necessary to involve employees.

4. Recognize that only employees who will participate in an incentive program know what incentives will motivate them. Also, employees must feel it is their program. This means that employees should be involved in the planning, implementing, and evaluating of the incentive program.

5. Keep communications clear. Employees need to understand the incentive program and all its aspects fully. Communicate with employees about the program, ask for continual feedback, listen to the feedback, and act on it.

6. Use nonmonetary rewards. Often nonmonetary incentives are more effective than money in promoting the desired results. An excellent resource for identifying nonmonetary rewards is the book the 1001 Rewards & Recognition Fieldbook by Nelson and Spitzer.

7. Reward teams. Rewarding teams can be more effective than rewarding individuals. This is because work in the modern industrial setting is more likely to be accomplished by a team than by an individual. When this is the case, other team members may resent the recognition given to an individual member. Such a situation can cause the incentive program to backfire.

OSHA's Stand on Safety Incentives

Organizations that plan to use safety incentives should be aware that OSHA is skeptical of them. OSHA is not against the use of safety incentives per se. Instead, OSHA is concerned that safety incentives, if not properly handled, might lead to unsafe behavior, failures to report accidents and near misses, and hazardous conditions that are not reported. OSHA's most significant concern is that safety incentives that are not adequately handled might encourage employees to cover up safety problems rather than report them.

A possible scenario is this: A minor accident occurs, but the individual involved does not report it because of his colleagues' peer pressure and direct pressure from his supervisor to keep quiet. Their message to the injured employee is: "If you report the accident, we will not get out incentive money this month, and we need the money." Consequently, OSHAhaving been apprised that cases such as this are happeningis concerned that incentives intended to promote safety might do just the opposite. Organizations that plan to use safety incentives should think through all the unintended consequences and be prepared to show OSHA that the incentives promote safety rather than encourage employees to cover up safety problems.

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MODULE-4: ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS

Chapter 28 provides many approaches that enable safety and health professionals to promote safety effectively. Drawing on textbook Chapter 28 (p. 632) perspectives, write a letter proposal to a fellow safety officer explaining how you would use INCENTIVES to promote your organization's safety. Make it relevant to your [Made-up/fake] organization and develop specific criteria (on what basis will the incentives be awarded, what awards will be offered, etc.)

*A formal business letter format is required.