{"id":2378,"date":"2020-06-09T00:08:41","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T00:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quicktransportsolutions.com\/blog\/?p=2378"},"modified":"2020-06-09T00:08:43","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T00:08:43","slug":"how-to-use-positive-reinforcement-in-your-safety-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicktransportsolutions.com\/blog\/how-to-use-positive-reinforcement-in-your-safety-program\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Positive Reinforcement in Your Safety Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Risk identification and coaching should be the backbone of any safety program. The safety program should be evaluated in its success in changing truck driver behavior. However, there are times when a truck driver doesn\u2019t respond to coaching, training or other forms of feedback. Despite numerous efforts by management, he or she simply refuses or is unable to change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>                                                              [wp_ad_camp_2]                    <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is where a progressive disciplinary strategy may be\nneeded to influence positive change. As a balance to a disciplinary plan, we\nencourage clients to also have a program in place to recognize and reward\ndrivers excelling in the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, we are going to look at the several disciplinary\nstrategies for you to consider, along with multiple positive reward\/incentive\nprograms that may be of interest to your trucking company or organization.\nEvery organization is different, so treat these examples as a potential\nframework for you to develop a program that is best for your organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Implementation of a comprehensive safety programs can be a\nsignificant change for any organization. Consequently, few trucking companies\nmake major changes to existing disciplinary policies during the early stages of\nimplementation. Instead, they often delay, perhaps six months to one year\nbefore considering significant adjustments. Advantages to this are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>It gives your organization and its employees\ntime to acclimate to the program. <\/li><li>You will have accumulated enough data from the\nprogram to make fact-based adjustments to your policies.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It is likely you have accumulated massive amounts of data as\nyou adopt new tools and technologies. How do you use the information you track?\nAnd what is the best way to reinforce positive behaviors within your\norganization?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Focus on Positive Reinforcement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Positive reinforcement of desired behaviors not only\nencourages employees to repeat those behaviors but also can spur employees to\nperform beyond the minimum expectations. Positive reinforcement can have a\nlonger lasting impact than behavior change driven by discipline for undesirable\nbehaviors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Positive reinforcement changes more than just the behavior,\nit changes the attitude about the behavior. This also applies when addressing\nsafe driving behaviors with your employees. Often, the risky behavior will\nreturn unless the attitude about the behavior is changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the above reasons, as well as the opportunity to improve\nemployee perception of the safety program you implement, it is advisable to\nintegrate positive reinforcement into the program. It\u2019s a good idea to install\npositive reinforcement early in the program implementation. You want to ensure\nyou hae early buy-in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following are examples of how you can use positive reinforcement\nwithin your safety program. Each organization is different, so these ideas may\nnot be ideal for your circumstances. They are presented to foster further\nthought on your part as to what is best for your organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Recognize Your Truck Drivers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a recognition strategy used by some trucking\ncompanies when a specific event has been identified as a \u201cPositive Recognition\nEvent\u201d or other instances where a driver exhibits superior safe driving skills\nor courteousness. These are the actions taken by the trucking company when an\nevent meets the outlined criteria:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Bring the driver in to thank him or her for the\nprofessional driving. <\/li><li>Ask for permission to use the video showing\ntheir good driving skills in a future safety meeting.&nbsp; <\/li><li>Arrange for someone from the management team to\nbe on hand at the next safety meeting to publicly thank the driver. The more\nsenior the manager is, the more impact the recognition will have. Do not\nunderestimate the power of positive recognition. <\/li><li>At the safety meeting, play the good driving\nvideo and facilitate group feedback. Conclude by explaining what stood out as\ngood driving in this event. <\/li><li>Have management thank the driver for his or her\ngood driving behavior. If suitable, include a reward such as a gift certificate\nto a local restaurant, company apparel, points towards a safety incentive\nprogram or other items.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Truck drivers love these programs. And they go a long way in\nfostering relationships between upper management and front-line truck drivers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Create a Best Event<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another option for larger trucking companies is to have each\nsite in a region select what they believe to be their best good driving event\nthat month. These videos are aggregated and then shared at the next month\u2019s\nsafety meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those in attendance at the safety meeting vote to determine which event was the best. The winner receives a certificate of thanks as well as a gift card to a local restaurant. Drivers in the videos are asked in advance to for permission share the video with the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>                                                              [wp_ad_camp_2]                    <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These videos can also be used to a dual purpose, for\npromotional and motivational programs. Content like this can be embedded in a\ntrucking company\u2019s website and used to lure new customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Use a Wheel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a strategy that involves providing recognition for\nhigh performing drivers, spurring competitiveness, and energizing safety\nmeetings. Here is how it works: On a monthly basis, each company location runs\na report to identify all truck drivers who have not had a coachable event or\npreventable collision during that period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At their monthly safety meeting, truck drivers listed on\nthis report get a turn spinning the \u201cWheel of Fortune\u201d. On the wheel are a\nvariety of prizes such as a $10 Subway gift card, movie tickets, or rights to a\nprime company parking spot for the month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are several advantages with this activity including: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Provides an opportunity for managers to thank\ndrivers for doing a good job. <\/li><li>Inspires drivers to get better because they all\nwant to \u201cspin the wheel\u201d. <\/li><li>Improves driver perception of the program. <\/li><li>Makes for an engaging safety meeting. <\/li><li>Very low cost and easy to administer.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Using Recognition for Ongoing Success<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your best truck drivers are those who exhibit safe driving\non an on-going basis, not just in a single event. These high performing drivers\nrarely trigger any events and thus their performance can potentially go\nunnoticed. It is important that these top-tier truck drivers are identified,\nrecognized, and rewarded for their personal commitment to safe driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some companies create truck drive reports to isolate their\nhigh performing drivers. Publish or announce this list of top truck drivers\neach month and thank them for doing a superior job. Be sure to remove names of\ndrivers who were not active during this period or are no longer with your\norganization. You may also want to exclude any drivers with other driving\nrelated issues during this period such as a preventable collision or safety\nviolations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many trucking companies also run this report on a quarterly\nbasis and annual basis to perpetuate their recognition program. As the time\nperiod of the report is longer, the list of qualifying drivers will be smaller\nmaking the accomplishment greater. Publish or announce these lists. You may\nalso wish to include escalating rewards, as the length of time a driver is on\nthis list increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What the Report Looks Like<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider publishing your truck driver report displaying the\ntop drivers at the end of each month and posting it in the break room. Most\ntruck drivers will stop and look to see if his or her name is on the list.\nDrivers who are not on the list often get a friendly ribbing by co-workers.\nThis simple posting of the list spurs competition amongst the drivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consider rewards this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Monthly: Recognize at safety meeting.<\/li><li>Quarterly: Recognize at safety meeting and\nprovide a $50 gift card.<\/li><li>Six Months: Recognize at safety meeting, provide\na $200 gift card and a company hat.<\/li><li>Annually: Recognized at safety meeting, $500\ngift card, and a company jacket.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These are just some ideas. Trucking companies can adapt them\nto the needs of their organizations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Coaching for Positive Recognition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Realizing that effective, committed coaches are essential to\ngetting the most from a comprehensive safety program, it might be wise to\ninstitute a program to reward and recognize your best program coaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Try creating something like a coaching effectiveness metric as the basis of a coach recognition program. Each active coach in the system has a Coaching Effectiveness score. The score should be based on the percentage of behaviors that were coached and not repeated in the following 60 days. A higher score means fewer coached behaviors have been repeated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>                                                              [wp_ad_camp_2]                    <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a quarterly basis you can review the metric for each of\ntheir active coaches. A 70% coaching score could be the minimum expectation for\neach coach. Coaches with a 90% or greater score receive special recognition as\nwell as a gift certificate to a local restaurant. You can also exclude coaches\nwith limited activity (in their case less than 10 coaching events during the\nquarter), as well as any coaches with 10% or more of their events overdue for\ncoaching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Risk identification and coaching should be the backbone of any safety program. The safety program should be evaluated in its success in changing truck driver behavior. However, there are times when a truck driver doesn\u2019t respond to coaching, training or other forms of feedback. Despite numerous efforts by management, he or she simply refuses or &#8230; <a title=\"How to Use Positive Reinforcement in Your Safety Program\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/quicktransportsolutions.com\/blog\/how-to-use-positive-reinforcement-in-your-safety-program\/\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to Use Positive Reinforcement in Your Safety Program<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trucking"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.4.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Use Positive Reinforcement in Your Safety Program - Quick Transport Solutions Trucking Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/quicktransportsolutions.com\/blog\/how-to-use-positive-reinforcement-in-your-safety-program\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Use Positive Reinforcement in Your Safety Program - Quick Transport Solutions Trucking Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Risk identification and coaching should be the backbone of any safety program. 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