What are the steps for ensuring that incentives actually promote safety?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Safety is another issue that is being confronted using incentives. To promote safety effectively, incentives must be properly structured. Puffer recommends the following strategies for enhancing the effectiveness of incentive programs:
• Define objectives. Begin by deciding what is supposed to be accomplished by the incentive program.
• 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 that is to be rewarded as well as guidelines for measuring success.
• 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.
• Recognize that only employees who will participate in an incentive program know what incentives will motivate them. In addition, employees must feel it is their program. This means that employees should be involved in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of the incentive program.
• Keep communications clear. It is important for employees to understand fully the incentive program and all of its aspects. Communicate with employees about the program, ask for continual feedback, listen to the feedback, and act on it.
• 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 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.