Thinking of implementing a safety incentive plan? Not so fast. Incentive plans should be designed to enhance existing overall safety programs. Incentives should only be put into place after a reasonably effective safety culture, with positive results, has been established and nourished.
If the comprehensive safety and health program is not yielding clear and definite signs of success, then the incentive idea must wait. Never lose sight of the fact that the purpose of incentives is to realize improvement in actual observable and measurable safe work habits; it is not simply to be able to point to improved statistics.