News & Information Blog

Have you ever been part of a group where you had a great idea and someone (or everyone) else got the credit?  How about the opposite, where that guy ignored a rule, say putting on his Fall Protection, and everyone had to sit through Fall Protection training again?

Did you know that the first colony in America was set up like a commune where the harvest was shared equally?  A few colonists caught on fast that they got their share whether they worked or not.  They ditched that system fast!  When everyone had their own gardens, the harvest increased.  There was excess to barter for meat from the really good hunter who couldn’t even keep a weed alive.  I am making assumptions, but you can see what I trying to get at here.

When a company says "We appreciate all of you." on March 4^th what does it mean to the employees?  When you don't want to offend anyone, such as employees with unsafe work habits, you tell your safe (and unsafe) employees what they do doesn't matter.  Managers or supervisors know who goes the extra mile but tracking their good work is paper intensive and can easily be accused of bias. While you should indeed, express your appreciation to all employees, having a system in place to recognize those that are good performers is, in the long run, even more meaningful.

When we started to create Simple Safety Coach our research showed how much easier it was getting a healthy safety culture up to speed and maintaining it with employee participation.  With the Safety Manager stuck in the office working on paperwork 50% plus training and other responsibilities severely limited the available time to walk through the facility for risk prevention opportunities.

There are specific tasks that employees do, or could do, that increase the safety of your workplace.  But tracking the employee who performs those tasks doesn't really translate to employee recognition without a lot of paperwork, which is the last thing a Safety Manager needs.

So, we set up 12 pathways for employees to be part of the Safety Solution and you, the employer or Safety Manager, can set a points value on their work.  This automatic process enables you to recognize employees who put the work into risk prevention that yields dividends in savings, employee retention and a sustainable, effective, Safety Culture. 

You can set a bar, a points goal, and recognize any employee who meets or exceeds it over a set time period.  We set it up so you can see their points from a start date to an end date for just that reason.  Not only can you recognize good work but your employees can recognize other employee's good work without leaving their work area.

Employees observe 100% of the unsafe conditions before they happen and Simple Safety Coach gives them the tools to report without leaving their work areas.  While this was groundbreaking we went a step further, with a click of a button the same report can be used to recognize employees who go above and beyond to keep the workplace safe. 

For example, there are three shifts using each work area and the labels on the containers are getting grubby and hard to read as well as a few other housekeeping issues.  The third shift carves out some time to tidy up the work area and clean or replace the labels.  First shift notices and appreciates this but the opportunity to say 'Thanks, good job!' is limited.  Are they going to go out and buy a Thank You card?

Would you feel praised for working harder to increase the safety of all three shifts if the work area as a whole was recognized?  Or would you feel praised if First Shift was able to recognize, appreciate, and point out your good work at the time, and the data collection process allowed your employer to recognize it at your annual review?

Did you know that praise for doing something extra or right is much, much more effective in repeating the behavior than a dressing down is for stopping one?  Did you also know that people, seeing other people praised, copy them hoping to be praised as well?

Happy, valued employees show up to work on time, ready for the day with a sharp eye for adding value to their work.  They also encourage good workers to apply to work at their great, safe, company!

If you are interested in this praise multiplier effect you should contact us for a conversation or demo!