With the right foot already in the festive season, employees can’t wait to rest and have a feast with their families. Getting their bonuses, they’ve worked for during the year is one major thing to look forward to, but 85% of people don’t use the money on good intentions which lead to financial strain in January. When employees are emotional, psychological, emotions and financial happy the rest fall into place easy. Stress is the major cause of everything and centre of most things, can you pay attention when stressed? When the company is running at a loss can you not stress and just laugh? NO! The same happens when employee/s is not fully functional, safety becomes least of their worries.

Workplace injury is a widespread problem that affects organizational effectiveness and employee health, safety, and well-being. all which could have been avoided at the first place. Organizations pay a heavy price for workplace injuries in terms of workers’ compensation costs, employee health decline, safety and morale, lost productivity, and an increase in absenteeism.

“One sure-fire way to decrease workplace safety incidents is to increase workplace safety behaviours.”

Creating a Recognition & Rewards Program for Workplace Safety (continuous feedback loop) 

1. Set Rate-Based & Compliance- Based Safety Goals
2. Pair Safety Behaviours with Recognition & Rewards
3. Develop a Tracking & Reporting System
4. Implement the Program
5. Provide Ongoing Training & Reinforcement
6. Analyse Results and Gather Feedback
7. Evaluate the Program’s Success
   

Organisational safety climate

In south Africa, department of labour* requires that employers provide their employees with a safe working environment and comply with federal safety regulations. This varies from health and safety policy to machinery inspections. A positive safety climate exists when employees believe that safety is valued and expected by their organization, which leads to increased safety performance and, as a result, reduced workplace accident and injury rates. 

Recognizing & Rewarding Workplace Safety

Managerial reinforcement of safety performance should be positive, proactive, and designed to help employees understand when, where, and what forms of safety behaviours are expected. 

To be successful, every safety program should include the following fundamental elements: 

1. Structured programs
2. Reinforcement of safety behaviours
3. Recognition and rewards framework
4. Safety communication
5. Safety trainings
6. Reinforcement training
7. Program tracking and evaluation
   

Concluding thoughts

The higher the investment their higher the return, and yes it does come with high risk; people. Behaviour can be changed with the right tools and guidance, people might ignore, resign but in at end of the day you make the final call. It can be investing in safety or face harsh fines, prison time and even worse shut down. Simply put, committing to a safe working environment saves money and improves the overall effectiveness of organizations and the health, safety, and well-being of employees.

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Written by Mahlodi Magane