May 14 2017
By: Terry L. Mathis
In college and professional athletics, winning is critical. That said, it's not just winning that gets rewarded. Coaching staff knows that performance is key to winning, so they seek and reward performance. This requires performance metrics. A player can belong to a losing team and still put forth stellar performance. Great individual performance is often rewarded separately from team performance. The poorest performers are often traded or released.
In safety, we tend to only reward winning. If we have accidents, everyone loses, including our MVPs. Organizations tend to lump the workforce into a single group to be treated equally, regardless of performance. Certainly, we want to win at safety; but ignoring the players and performance that help us win is not the way to do it. Organizations need to find innovative methods and metrics to reward and encourage excellent individual safety performance, even if the team doesn't take home the trophy.
Terry Mathis, Founder and retired CEO of ProAct Safety, has served as a consultant and advisor for top organizations the world over. A respected strategist and thought leader, Terry has authored five books, numerous articles, videos and blogs, and is known for his dynamic and engaging presentations. EHS Today has named him one of the '50 People Who Most Influenced EHS' four consecutive times. Business leaders and safety professionals seek Terry's practical insight and unique ability to introduce new perspectives that lead to real change.
