Safety Excellence Is Here
If you have not yet received one, you will soon be getting the all-new Safety Excellence turnkey safety incentive program announcement kit. 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.

Safety Excellence is a complete ready-to-use safety award program that can be used as is or customized to reflect your client’s unique program features. If you’d like to discuss a safety program opportunity where you think Safety Excellence presents the right solution or would like to request more sample materials, please contact us at 1-800-292-7371 and ask for sales or e-mail us at sales@spihq.com

Debunking Myths About Safety Programs

Myth:  OSHA has banned Safety Incentive Programs or OSHA opposes Safety Incentive Programs

Fact:  OSHA neither opposed or banned Safety Incentive Programs. OSHA has investigated safety incentive programs to determine if there is relevancy to the charge that they cause injury hiding. OSHA states that at times they can, but they have provided guidelines on how best to use incentives to eliminate this problem.
OSHA's guidelines and recommendations for safety incentive programs emphasize the value of psychological rewards over large monetary ones. According to their guidelines, programs which recognize employee involvement in safety-related activities and reward safe behaviors are more acceptable to the agency than those that are based upon reducing injuries and accidents.

Myth:  Safety Incentive Programs promote injury hiding

Fact:  Studies have shown that where injury hiding has occurred, the corporate environment had more to do with the act of injury-hiding than did the existence of incentives for no accidents. The conclusion was that injury-hiding would occur whether an incentive was offered or not.

Also, properly designed safety programs now focus on rewarding employees for identifying safety hazards and correcting them or for adhering to best safe practices. Much less emphasis is and should be placed on big rewards for no accidents. Some programs even reward employees for reporting accidents and the solution for preventing any further incidences.

Myth:  Safety rewards are unnecessary. Employees are motivated from within to avoid an accident. An employee’s hourly wage or salary is enough incentive to be safe.

Fact:  In a study by Dr. Kenneth Kovach, quoted by Bob Nelson in his book 1001 Ways to Reward Employees, recognition for a job well done is the single most important factor in employee job satisfaction.

Furthermore, employees surveyed said that 68% of the time they were not recognized enough by upper management. In another survey, employees who leave a job or quit a job consistently rank lack of recognition and praise as the number one reason cited for leaving. Recognizing people for being safe not only works, but is a legitimate strategy for changing behavior.

Myth:  If there is a union, there can be no safety program.

Fact: If there is a union there can be a safety program, however union representatives should be included in the planning process.
 
Have You Seen Rock ‘N Run The Warehouse?
OK, it doesn’t feature Brad Pitt or Halle Berry, and won’t top any box office records, but the new Rock ‘N Run CD/DVD is a must see. If you haven’t witnessed the enthusiasm, the thrill and uncontained excitement of the one minute merchandise grab-fest that is the Rock ‘N Run through then you are missing out on the most unique awards this industry has ever offered.

Warehouse run-throughs are not new but they are back and becoming popular and PFI has made them better than ever before. The CD/DVD brings this event alive with the music, the cheers the balloons and most important of all . . . the award winner with their merchandise overflowing the cart.

If your client is looking for something really unique to motivate employees, sales people or channel partners, you’ve got to introduce them to the Rock ‘N Run The Warehouse. You can get a copy of the CD/DVD by contacting sales@spihq.com or you can go to the PFI website: www.pfi-awards.com and download a copy.

‘Tis The Season To Think About Gift Giving
The holiday corporate gift-giving season is less than two months away. Many companies have already finished the gift selection process. If you or your customers are still “getting to it” or even trying to decide whether or not to put a corporate gift-giving program in place, PFI can help.

First, consider this statistic. A recent study conducted by the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) shows that vendors and suppliers who gave out corporate gifts were twice as likely to increase their chances of being contacted by customers as those who didn't have a gift program. Good will aside, corporate gift programs are a solid business development strategy.

If you still want to put something in place this year, PFI has a simple and effective solution. We have created a new, attractive holiday gift cover for our plateau collections. This means you have 13 gift levels at 13 price points. This translates into complete flexibility to implement a program that meets your budgetary requirements.

Plateau levels 1-8 are already bound and ready to use. Levels 9-13 can be bound at your request in whatever quantity you require. There is no easier way to introduce a corporate gift program than picking up the phone and giving us a call.

To order a Holiday Gift Collections contact sales at 1-800-292-7371 or e-mail us at
sales@spihq.com

Some Incentive Planning “Rules of Thumb”
One of the most challenging aspects to developing an incentive program is budgeting one. And some of the most frequently asked questions include: How much should I include for awards? How much should I award participants? How much should I budget for fixed costs. Here are some “rule of thumb” numbers generally accepted throughout the industry.


How Much Should I Budget For Awards?
Total award investment is generally allocated as a percent of total revenue or percent of projected incremental revenue.

 As a percent of total revenue, you should budget 1% - 1.5% of total revenue
 As a percent of incremental revenue, you should budget 10% - 20% of incremental revenue

How Should I Award My Participants?
The investment in merchandise awards varies by company, industry, and the job to be done. However, analysis of the most successful incentive programs has found that in year-long programs it takes award opportunities of about 3% to 5% of the participant's income to capture the mind and enthusiasm of the person. Some industry experts recommend you award as much as 5-10% of an individual’s annual income for a 12-month program.

How Much Should I Budget For Fixed Costs?
(Communications and Administration)
Front-end costs are minimal. Generally, about 10% to 15% of the total marketing program budget goes into communication – telling the participants about the program and administration – providing the program measurements and operation to assure that it runs smoothly and efficiently.

Please note that employee recognition and safety programs often include more frequent communications and more communication elements. Communications budgets for these types of incentives can justifiably account for up to 50% of the total budget.

An additional 10% - 15% should be budgeted for program administration. This may vary however, based on the reporting and tracking requirements as well on the total number of projected participants.


Incentive Programs Are “Investments” Not Costs
The greatest value of incentive programs is that they produce results first – 80% of costs are spent after a company achieves the performance results and goals they set out to achieve.

Why Lifestyle Merchandise Is As Popular As Ever
Lifestyle merchandise awards have been an integral part of successful incentive programs for over 75 years. The most frequently cited reasons are:

 Merchandise awards provide a greater motivational impact for the money.

 Lifestyle merchandise awards have consistently been proven to motivate employees to achieve the performance levels desired.

 Merchandise is never confused with compensation as cash awards often are.

 Merchandise incentives overcome the “paid for the job done” attitude of non-sales employees by offering the opportunity to earn something that might normally be considered unattainable.

 Unlike cash, merchandise awards are tangible, they can be talked about and serve as long-lasting reminders of an outstanding performance.

Brand-Name Lifestyle Merchandise Is Still King
It’s not enough however, to offer just lifestyle merchandise. According to Promo Magazine, brand-name merchandise is king. In a recent article, the magazine noted that “companies spend nearly $27 billion a year on incentive programs to motivate employees, channel partners, and customers. At the same time, nearly two-thirds of all purchases made are for brand-name products.”

Here are even more compelling statistics that validate and support the use and effectiveness of lifestyle merchandise. These results are from Incentive Federation studies conducted over the past five years.




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