Maximizing the Effective use of Incentives to improve safety performance

Maximizing the Effective use of Incentives to improve safety performance

Scientific Proof of what many of us have know for ages – financial incentive schemes for not getting hurt are Crap!

Great article by David Carter from Safety Success

Extract:

There are two areas of the brain that affect our responses to incentives.  The nucleus accumbens, or pleasure center, activates when a financial incentive is offered.  This area of the brain is focused solely on the value of the deal and has little to do with anything else.  The pleasure center is also the same area that is responsible for addictive behavior and drives the need for the ever increasing amounts of stimuli which is needed to achieve the same pleasurable response.  When we offer a reward for behavior that is to be delivered after a response we activate this area of the brain.  This is the main reason why pay raises are only effective for a short period of time and are expected on a regular interval.  Additionally, the effective time period while regular, is also arbitrary and is decided based on cultural and individual factors.  This makes it ineffective as a sole means of driving many of your safety programs.

READ AND ENJOY THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE……

You should also read this article by George Robotham about his real life experiences with Safety Incentive Schemes