Page 92 - Occupational Health & Safety, September 2017

Employee Gifts & Incentives
Safety Incentives: Why One Size Does Not Fit All
It’s finding the right blend of motivators that makes the difference between a successful program and one that just bumps along.
BY JANE LARSON Recently, a truck hauling 7,500 pounds of hagfish, also known as “slime eels,” was making its way through a construction zone on an Oregon highway. The driver didn’t accurately anticipate a complete stop in traf- fic, but when it suddenly halted, he had to hit the brakes. The load shifted abruptly, causing the hag- fish containers to “fly across the highway,” accord- ing to the Oregon State Police, and cause a chain- reaction crash involving four other vehicles and an
extremely slimy mess on the highway.
Safety isn’t just a driver issue, and safety con-
cerns encompass many types of workplaces. Wher- ever people are working, safety issues can be preva- lent and devastating. OSHA is working to set and enforce safety standards as well as provide training, outreach, education, and assistance to help compa- nies reduce fatalities and injuries on the job.
So what can a company do to motivate their people to keep themselves—and others—safe? Im- plementing a safety program for your company is one thing, but getting your employees to keep their eyes open, stay compliant, and be motivated to par- ticipate in safe behaviors (and keep slimy fish off the road) can be a challenge. Here are a few tips.
Know Your Audience
Knowing that “one size does not fit all” when it comes to safety incentive programs is a good first step. Your program needs to consider the targeted employee segment. Is it focused on one particular segment (role, region), or is it your whole employee base?
Each employee segment is further defined by its demographics (age, gender, income, education) and its psychographics (attitudes, aspirations, life- style). Simply put, every individual has different behaviors to perform or processes to follow to stay safe. Understanding the complexities of your em- ployee segments and what motivates them both from an intrinsic (internal) and extrinsic (external) perspective will inform the design of your safety incentive program.
What Are Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivators?
Intrinsic motivation happens when performing an activity that is personally rewarding rather than
having the desire for an external award—things such as participating in a sport because it’s fun or solving a problem because it’s interesting. We are intrinsically motivated by having a sense of be- longing, social contact, learning new information, achieving mastery in our job or the feeling of au- tonomy at work. Corporate communications and training/education is necessary in appealing to in- trinsic motivators.
Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, occurs because we want to behave or engage in an activity in order to earn a reward or avoid a punishment. For example, participating in a sport to win a big tro- phy or competing in a sales contest to win a group travel event to Spain. Extrinsic motivation is driven by competition, praise, tangible awards, benefits we receive at work, and even fear of failure. A central- ized employee initiative platform is a good vehicle to administer and manage extrinsic motivators.
Each of us is motivated differently. Because we’re human beings, we experience and react to eco- nomic and personal decision-making according to what’s happening in our environment, our relation- ships, and even how we feel each day. Behavioral economics is a vast and context-dependent science. What is recognized by the scientific community, however, is the fact that people are motivated both intrinsically and extrinsically; sometimes in tan- dem, sometimes one way more than the other. It’s finding the right blend of motivators that makes the difference between a successful program and one that just bumps along.
What Is the Right Mix of Motivators?
In his book “Payoff,” behavioral economist Dan Ar- iely puts it this way: “Because motivation is a part of almost everything we do, and because it influences and sustains virtually every aspect of our lives, it is impossible to come up with one simple set of mo- tivational rules.”
However, he goes on to point out that asking questions about the motivational facets of a tar- get audience is important. Asking questions such as “where do my employees excel already?” and “where don’t they need any additional motivation?” will help clarify a starting point in designing an ap-
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