Page 45 - OHS, April 2021

were hidden. In my experience, the only real behavior change that occurs with safety incentive programs based on lagging indicators is what gets reported. Sure, your injury numbers will probably go down, but after the program ends, injuries will resurface and your case rate will spike back up.
Solution:
Select the Right Leading Indicators Most forward-thinking companies have transitioned away from lagging indicator incentives. They are using leading indicators to promote positive behavior change. Sadly, many end up rewarding the wrong thing.
Successfully completing a safety crossword puzzle is not a behavioral consequence that will reduce injuries. Just showing up for safety training class isn’t enough either. What knowledge gain can we measure? Did we engage in meaningful two-way conversation?
Be careful in choosing the behaviors you want to reinforce and reward. Perhaps you want employees to report more near- hit incidents—a viable goal. However, be careful not to focus only on employee behaviors and letting supervisors and senior leaders off the hook. You want to positively reinforce their safe behaviors, too, but leader behaviors are different. Leadership behavior matters more than worker behavior—it has a more widespread impact. You need positive behaviors top to bottom in an organization to create sustainable safety values, beliefs, norms and a positive safety culture.
Trapped by Old School
Lagging Incentives
Many safety pros inherit safety incentive programs based on lagging indicators. They fear changing to leading indicators will result in an uptick in injury cases. This fear is unfounded. In more than 30 years and over 1,000 transitions from lagging to leading metrics, I have never seen employee injuries increase after removing a lagging indicator incentive system. I have, however, seen injury reporting increase, which is a good thing. If you get it reported, you can fix it. If it stays hidden, the alligator is just waiting in the swamp to find his next victim.
To sum up these lessons learned, the most important part of planning for a successful safety recognition program is to address the why, the what and the how questions.
And remember, the WIIFM issue relates not only to employees, but organization leadership as well. Leaders reinforce critical positive behaviors for two reasons. First, they truly care about sending every employee home healthy and without harm every day. Second, safety is good for business. Many companies say for every dollar invested in an effective safety recognition program, the return on that investment is three or four times the initial outlay. Injuries and related costs are reduced, and productivity and quality increase, along with profits.
ThThink about these lessons learned before you launch your next safety incentive program. ThThere’s no need for history to repeat itself. Spare yourself the problems and achieve the results you want.
Bill Sims is the author of the book “Green Beans & Ice Cream: The Remarkable Power of Positive Reinforcement.” He has consulted with more than 1,000 firms in designing reward and recognition systems and holds issued patents in the field. To learn more visit www.beyondzeroinjuries.com.
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APRIL 2021 | Occupational Health & Safety 41
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