As a safety professional I want to use every option available to reduce injuries. Incentive programs are one of those options. I have to admit that I, like many others, have struggled for many years with the question of the value of incentive programs.
Early in my career, long before I got into the safety field, I was working for a chemical company. One day I came home with a new igloo cooler. My wife asked where I got it and I replied, “Something at work, I think it is for safety.†I was getting safety-related gift items so often that I didn’t have the slightest idea what they were for or why I received them. I can surely say that they had absolutely no effect on my behaviors on the job.