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PFI Newsletter: April 2003
During the last five years there has
been a significant increase in the use of employee-focused incentives
to achieve a wide range of corporate objectives. With the skyrocketing
increases in medical costs and the subsequent increase in costs of
accidents to employers, safety incentive programs are being used more
and more.
For years PFI has
provided marketing partners with an easy-to-use, turnkey safety
rewards incentive program. This program, Play It Safe, has been used
by hundreds of partners to help their customers successfully achieve
their safety objectives. With the renewed interest in safety programs,
PFI realized it was time to update and enhance the Play it Safe safety
incentive program.
Within the next few
months you will be receiving important new information about the new
version of Play it Safe that will be presented as Safety Excellence.
Safety Excellence is more
than just a renamed Play it Safe. The new Safety Excellence program is
designed to provide you more flexibility while still providing you
with a cost effective, easy-to-implement safety incentive program.
Safety Excellence marketing materials will provide you useful
information about developing and presenting safety incentive
solutions.
Specifically, the new
turnkey program will highlight how your clients can achieve their
safety goals by focusing their incentive efforts on the most important
factors contributing to a safe and healthy working environment. These
include:
Safety Excellence
presents two options for presenting and implementing a safety
incentive program within your customers’ organizations.
1. Using the complete,
ready-to-implement Safety Excellence Incentive Program Kit minimizes
the time and effort you would need to develop and implement your own
safety incentive program. The kit will be similar to the Play it Safe
standard kit and will feature the popular rub-off game cards, posters,
Jr. Mini-Module award brochure and an all new comprehensive Safety
Excellence Safety Incentive Planning manual. All materials will also
feature exciting, contemporary graphics, something we know will be a
welcome upgrade from the much-dated Play it Safe program materials.
2.)
Using the selected stock Safety Excellence
materials a la carte to customize your safety incentive application.
This option will allow you to build the program you desire that best
meets your customers’ needs and save time and money by using
pre-printed safety incentive program support materials.
Safety Excellence will be
a premier safety solution that will motivate and reward employees to
practice safe work habits every day. It’s time to achieve your safety
goals with Safety Excellence. Start planning for Safety Excellence
today!
Here are six important reasons why you
should consider a safety excellence safety incentive program:
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To translate company
cost reduction and safety goals into measurable behavior steps that
can be rewarded.
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To create an environment where employees are
empowered to affect change and are both challenged and rewarded for
doing the best possible job.
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To
convey and reinforce key safety goals and standards.
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To
improve employees’ attitudes toward their job, increase loyalty, and
improve corporate morale.
The Time is Right for Employee
Recognition
We have just passed the three-year mark since the stock market hit its
all time record highs in March of 2000. Since then U.S. businesses
have struggled to weather a staggering combination of recession,
economic stagnation, terrorist attacks, corporate scandals, eroding
consumer confidence and war. In response to this series of economic
hurdles, companies have slashed inventories, cut prices, laid-off
hundreds of thousands of their employees and cut benefits.
No industry has been immune to the impact of all of these negative
business factors. What makes matters worse is that many companies are
now facing a demoralized, unmotivated and in some cases unproductive
workforce. This article however, is not about doom and gloom. It is
about the tremendous opportunity the current business environment
presents for introducing a comprehensive employee recognition program.
We’re not talking about the old fashioned "atta boy" or at-on-the-back
from your manager recognition, nor are we talking about end of the
year plaque presentations.
What is called
for is an organized, clearly communicated, consistent and all-out
inspirational employee recognition initiative. Why? Because there is a
serious and urgent need for companies across the business spectrum to
improve employee morale, improve job satisfaction, improve
productivity and in general, embrace, recognize and reward employees
who give their all and work hard to move their companies forward to a
day when economic times are brighter.
What Makes Up A Good
Employee Recognition Program?
A good employee recognition program is one that has clearly defined
goals, a simple and motivating reward structure, discretionary
recognition, empowered managers and employees and includes clear and
frequent communication. The following are some basic employee
recognition program tips.
Establish A Clear Set Of
Objectives
The overall goal of a company-wide recognition initiative should be to
create and foster an environment of positive reinforcement and
employee empowerment. Here are specific goals that can and should be
part of a comprehensive recognition program:
• Reduce operating expenses
• Improve productivity
• Reduce absenteeism
• Improve quality of service to customers
• Improve product quality/reduce waste
• Generate and implement cost savings ideas
Focusing on these goals will create a work environment that truly
acknowledges and rewards all employees’ contributions and their value
to the organization.
Create A Program Plan
With goals defined, a program plan can be put in place to recognize
and reward employees for successfully meeting and exceeding the
objectives. The simplest format is to present a quarterly award
structure. These goals can be broken down and rewarded by department,
unit, shift or even company-wide. Each quarter that the defined goals
are achieved the successful employee group wins.
How Do You Recognize and
Reward Achievement?
The most motivating and flexible recognition reward media is one that
can be accumulated and redeemed for awards of greater value. Award
points, rub-off game cards and collectible stickers have proven to be
the most effective. All of these media provide the flexibility of
adjusting the payout to fit within your budget parameters. All can be
used in conjunction with any one of PFI’s eight award catalogs and/or
brochures.
Don’t Forget Discretionary Awards
Immediate reinforcement is a powerful and memorable management tool.
Present management personnel with a discretionary recognition reward
vehicle. This could be include: rub-off game cards, award point
checks, specially stickers that can be collected and redeemed for
awards or even specialty logo’d merchandise like t-shirt coffee mugs,
caps etc. Mangers should be given set guidelines for presenting
"on-the-spot" recognition. These guidelines should be consistent with
the overall recognition program goals.
Focus On Teams
Peer group pressure is a strong motivator. When you present a work
group, shift or line crew with a common goal and a common award
opportunity, you establish a strong incentive for team members to
reinforce the importance of quality, service, attendance or whatever
the team goals is among
themselves. Plus, no individual wants to be the one responsible for
holding the entire team back.
Kudos To Everyone!
An important strategy for improving morale is to empower employees by
enabling them to reinforce positive actions or events that impact
their team, work environment, morale, etc. Here are the most important
ways that positive, morale-building actions can be shared with
employees and supervisors.
Communicate,
Communicate, Communicate!
The following are recommended communication strategies for achieving
the defined communication goals:
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Conduct a big kickoff
with everyone in an auditorium or rented theater. The event should
include a CEO address, AV/video presentation/announcement, door
prizes, a Q & A session, printed materials/participation kits
-
Have
Supervisors/managers reinforce the launch with team or department
meetings to specifically promote the program
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Introduce an ongoing
communication plan featuring monthly performance standings,
quarterly newsletter and payroll stuffers
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Make the program highly
visible everywhere with banners, posters, tent cards and danglers
-
Post and frequently
update performance tracking charts
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Have a special meeting
or event when significant goals are achieved
PFI Can Help You Make
The Most of Your Recognition Incentives
PFI can help you plan, launch and implement a successful employee
recognition program. We can work with you to develop a custom program
and we can provide you with a ready-to-use program using one of our
two unique employee
performance systems: T.O.P.S. and You Make The Difference.
If you want more
information or need help with an employee recognition program
opportunity call sales at 1-800-292-7371 or e-mail at
sales@spihq.com
Safety
Awareness vs. Recognition vs. Safety Incentive
Safety program terminology is often confusing and at times
misleading. The safety industry considers a safety program to be a
comprehensive, organized and documented effort by a business or
corporation to establish a safe and healthy working environment.
Safety incentives, recognition or awareness programs are not by
themselves considered to be a safety program. A successful safety
program will include a combination of communication, training,
incentive and recognition. When working toward achieving defined
safety goals using a safety incentive program, it is therefore
critical to understand what the existing overall safety program
consists of and how and where a safety incentive can be applied. It is
also important to understand the differences between safety awareness,
recognition and incentives.
SAFETY AWARENESS
Safety awareness programs are different from safety incentive and
safety recognition programs in that their objective is to inform and
communicate information about
safety procedures, practices and guidelines. With safety awareness
there is no proactive effort to change or modify behavior or
reactively recognize it. Safety awareness is an important part of an
overall safety program and should clearly serve to provide employees
with safety standards and performance expectations that in turn can be
used as measurement criteria around which safety incentive and
recognition programs can be built.
SAFETY RECOGNITION
Safety recognition programs are generally reactive and are designed to
show appreciation for the accomplishment after the fact. The goal of a
safety recognition program is to express appreciation to all employees
for their contribution toward meeting corporate safety goals and
recognizing them for it. Safety recognition programs are relatively
straightforward in their purpose and application. They are simple to
implement and administer and there are no results to tabulate. As in
the case with safety awareness programs, safety recognition programs
provide no proactive measures
to motivate employees to change or modify their work habits to comply
with safety policies and procedures.
SAFETY INCENTIVES
Safety incentive programs are the opposite of safety recognition
programs in that a safety incentive program is proactive. A safety
incentive program is designed to modify or change mental and/or
physical behavior by motivating employees with reward incentives.
Safety awareness is an important part of a successful safety incentive
program in that employees must clearly understand what the safety
policies and procedures are and what steps they must take to maintain
an accident free environment that will ultimately yield an incentive
reward. Another distinguishing factor of safety incentive programs is
that they require the tracking and reporting of employee performance
as well as issuing awards as safety goals are achieved.
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