PETERSEN'S PAGE: What behavior really gets rewarded?
In safety, we typically hope for safe behavior — and reward unsafe behavior. Our formal and informal organizational systems — peer pressure, how we measure worker safety performance (usually we don’t), and how we reward safe behaviors (as compared to productivity or quality) — usually are excellent examples of how we reinforce unsafe behavior.
Safety isn’t alone in having problems with rewards that miss their mark. Many fields suffer unintended consequences through their performance recognition efforts: