Rewards and Recognition in OHS: What to Watch Out For

What should a safety reward scheme reward?

The "Days without an accident: 214" board at the factory entrance is a familiar sight. As the number grows, management is pleased, and at a certain threshold the team is given a meal or a bonus. The intention is good; but this kind of safety reward scheme can measure the wrong thing.

The indicators that measure OHS performance fall into two groups:

Outcome indicators: Number of accidents, lost days, accident-free days. They show what happened in the past; in small workplaces they depend heavily on luck.
Process indicators: Near miss reports, corrective actions closed, site walks completed, training attendance. They show what is being done today and are things workers can directly influence.

A reward creates motivation when it is tied to behaviour within the worker's control. When it is tied to outcomes, the only tool in the worker's hands may be to make the outcome "look good". For the general framework of indicators, see our article on OHS performance indicators.

The hidden cost of the accident-free days award

When an accident-free days award is combined with a team reward, it creates strong pressure: if a minor cut or sprain is reported, the whole team loses the reward. On the shop floor this pressure can look like this:

A worker hides an injury and carries on working with a plaster taken from the first aid cabinet.
A foreman records an accident with lost working days as "leave".
Near misses are not discussed, because even saying "that was close" may be linked to the counter.
A worker experiencing symptoms hesitates to raise a suspected occupational disease.

There is a legal side to this as well. Under Art. 14/1 of Law No. 6331, the employer keeps a record of all workplace accidents and occupational diseases, carries out the necessary investigations and prepares reports; it also investigates incidents that have the potential to harm the worker, the workplace or equipment even if they do not cause injury or death. Under Art. 14/2, a workplace accident is notified to the SGK (Social Security Institution) within 3 working days after the accident.

We explained how minor injuries should be recorded in our article on reporting minor workplace accidents. The reward scheme should make it easier, not harder, to keep these records complete.

What should you reward instead?

Rewards and recognition should be tied to behaviours that prevent accidents. The table below offers workable criteria and examples of recognition:

Rewarded behaviour	Criterion	Example of recognition
Near miss and hazard reporting	Quality of the report and the measure taken as a result	Report of the month, thanks in the toolbox talk
Improvement suggestion	A suggestion that is implemented and reduces risk	Announcement in the suggester's name, involvement in implementation
Taking part in site walks and inspections	Participation and closing out the non-conformities found	Team-level recognition
Contribution to training	On-the-job mentoring, giving toolbox talks	Making the trainer role visible
Stopping work in danger	Stopping work and reporting when serious danger is seen	Written thanks from management
Closing corrective actions on time	Completing the action one is responsible for within the deadline	Department-level recognition

The "stopping work in danger" row in the table is particularly important. Art. 13 of Law No. 6331 grants workers who face serious and imminent danger the right to refuse to work and states that their rights cannot be restricted for this reason. Art. 18 obliges the employer to consult workers on OHS matters and ensure their participation. When the reward scheme rewards those who exercise these rights, the right on paper also lives on the shop floor. For details, see our article on the right to refuse to work.

How do you design a reporting reward?

A poorly designed reporting reward also causes problems: if only the number is counted, trivial reports multiply and real hazards get lost. The following principles work:

Measure quality, not quantity. Recognise not the person who made the most reports in a month, but the report that made the most important hazard visible and led to prevention.
Close the feedback loop. If the person reporting is not told what was done, a reward alone will not sustain reporting. Every report should have an owner and a target date.
Do not look for someone to blame. If a worker named in a report is punished, reporting stops whatever the reward. Look for the root cause in the system, not the person; for methods, see our article on root cause analysis methods.
Leave an anonymous channel. Some workers want to report without giving their name. Even if anonymous reports are not linked to the reward, they should be assessed with the same seriousness.
Make reporting easy. A short form, QR code reporting on site or a verbal report to the foreman; whatever the method, it should not take longer than a minute.

For setting up the reporting system, see our articles on the near miss reporting system, and for designing the suggestion scheme, the OHS suggestion scheme.

Types of reward: money or recognition?

Safety motivation is not achieved through money alone; large cash rewards, especially when tied to outcomes, increase the pressure to suppress reporting. When designing, consider the following:

Recognition is a powerful tool. A manager thanking someone by name on the shop floor, being held up as an example in the toolbox talk and the suggester taking part in implementation are strong sources of motivation.
Small and frequent is better than large and rare. A small recognition that comes right after the behaviour is more effective than a large reward at the end of the year.
Use team rewards carefully. Team rewards strengthen cooperation, but if tied to outcomes they suppress reporting through peer pressure. Tie team rewards to process criteria such as participation and improvement.
Be fair. Subcontractor workers and those in temporary employment relationships carry the same risks on the same site; they should not be left out of the programme.
Do not make the reward the counterpart of a penalty. The approach "those who break no rules get a reward" stops rule compliance being a normal expectation.

Put your OHS incentive programme in writing

Putting the rules of an OHS incentive programme in writing prevents arbitrary practice and the perception of unfairness. The programme document should include the following:

Purpose: Which behaviours the programme supports.
Criteria: Which reports, suggestions or participation will be considered.
Decision mechanism: Who will carry out the assessment. In workplaces with 50 or more workers where continuous work lasting longer than six months is carried out, the OHS committee is a natural platform for this; for how the committee works, see our article on how to set up an OHS committee.
Frequency and announcement: When and how recognition will be announced.
Scope: How subcontractor workers will be included in the programme.
Review: Assessing the programme's effect once a year.

Info

Example: a monthly recognition cycle in a three-department plant

In the first week of the month, all near miss reports and improvement suggestions from the previous month are collected in a list. The OHS committee, or where there is no committee a small team made up of the specialist, the physician, the worker representative and department heads, assesses the list with three questions: Did the report make a real hazard visible? Was a measure taken? Was the measure extended to other departments? Reports and suggestions where the answer to all three questions is "yes" are announced at the first toolbox talk of the month, in the name of the person who made them and together with the measure taken. There is no competition between departments; what is measured is the average time to close open reports and whether recurring hazards are decreasing. In the year-end review, these two indicators are read together with the results of a worker survey.

When assessing the programme's effect, do not read an increase in the number of reports as failure. A rising number of reports may, in the first stage, be a sign that problems are becoming more visible.

Common mistakes in reward programmes

Linking the accident-free days counter to the bonus system.
Rewarding the department where no reports are made, rather than the person who reports.
Collecting suggestions and giving no feedback; workers soon stop making suggestions.
Giving rewards only to people chosen by management; if the criteria are not clear, the programme loses trust.
Leaving subcontractor workers out.
Launching the programme and not measuring it; a year later nobody knows what has changed.

Rewards and recognition do not build an OHS culture on their own; they work together with leadership's attitude on the shop floor, training and fast feedback. For the general framework, see our article on how to build an OHS culture. For companies in Bursa and the surrounding provinces, we design reward and reporting systems together with risk assessment and corrective action follow-up under our OHS specialist service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should the accident-free days award be abolished altogether?

Accident-free days can be tracked as an indicator, but should not be tied to a bonus or reward. When the reward is tied to behaviours within the worker's control, such as reporting, suggestions and participation, the risk of suppressing reporting falls.

Won't a reporting reward lead to more trivial reports?

It can if only the number of reports is counted. That is why the reward should be tied to the quality of the report and the measure taken as a result, and feedback should be given on every report.

Should subcontractor workers be included in the reward programme?

Yes. Leaving out workers who carry the same risks on the same site both damages the sense of fairness and reduces reports from subcontractor teams.

Is an OHS reward programme a legal requirement?

No. There is no legal requirement for a reward programme. However, the employer is obliged to consult workers and ensure their participation, and a well-designed programme is one of the most effective ways to bring that obligation to life on the shop floor.