By Andrew P. McCoy and Fred Sargent
Published On August 15, 2024
What happens in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas.
At the 2024 NECA Emerge conference in April, during a panel discussion about service and maintenance, Chris Harris, service manager at Chewning & Wilmer, Richmond, Va., told the audience how his company has been using poker chips to reward individuals for reducing job-site safety risks.
Harris explained that Chewning & Wilmer project managers and safety professionals come prepared during visits to the field to present safety tokens on the spot to electricians and others as rewards for the safe work practices and behaviors they observe.
The company’s safety rewards program also covers actions that the project managers and safety professionals are not in a position to see firsthand. For example, service electricians can take credit for safety measures they have accomplished by self-reporting through a safety observation report.
At Las Vegas casinos, winners turn in their gambling chips for pay-outs at the cage cashiers’ windows. Meanwhile, at Chewning & Wilmer, there is a virtual safety incentive store where everyone can redeem their safety tokens for items in a catalog with 10 tiers of products that range from a “C+W” baseball cap (1 chip) to a $200 brand-name winter jacket (10 chips).
Eager to learn more about this novel program, we had a coffee break with Sam Houchins, the company’s safety director and HR manager.
We have seen many electrical contractors’ programs with incentives and rewards for on-the-job safety. But the poker chip concept is unique. How did it come about?
We started this program back in June 2022 after working on a project with a customer that did something in this vein.
There’s a well-known expression that says imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
That’s very true. We tweaked the other company’s version to make it fit our workforce even better. And, by the way, we also offer better prizes than that company did.
You have had two years of solid experience with this program. How has it been received?
By every indication, our workforce has responded very positively to this program.
How have you measured their response to it?
One way that we can tell for certain is that they have redeemed over 300 prizes in the almost two years since its inception.
The safety store has 10 levels of products based on retail purchase prices. The number of each level corresponds to the number of safety tokens required for redemption. How do you determine what kinds of items to include?
Our safety council re-evaluates the safety store twice a year to make sure the prizes on it are still relevant and what the folks in the field want. If our folks in the field have an idea for an item, they talk to me or my senior safety coordinator about possibly adding a new item to the store, and we can make those changes happen pretty quickly.
That brings up another aspect that sets this program apart from other safety programs. Instead of the typical top-down administration, in yours, the participants have more freedom and opportunity to offer their ideas and input.
The best indication of the philosophy that underpins our program can be found in our safety observation report, better known by its initials “SOR.” Everyone and anyone in the field can produce one. We utilize good, old-fashioned 3×5 cards for this. Using 3×5 cards, they can take credit for having physically corrected an unsafe condition or somehow taken steps to raise our safe-work culture.
Can you drill down further into explaining how the SOR system works? Some readers may want to put something like this to work in their companies.
OK, the SOR is quite simple and straightforward. It has just three fields that need to be filled out: the observer’s name, the observation (what hazard, condition or behavior was involved. Remember, it can be good or bad!) and what action was taken as a result. (How was the hazard mitigated—or, better yet, removed completely?)
After two years, how would you add up your winnings?
This program has visibly helped change the safety culture on our job sites for the better.
How have your customers responded to what they have observed with it?
They have gotten in on the game! Some of our customers’ project supervisors now carry a small supply of Chewning & Wilmer safety tokens with them just so they can commend our electricians for their safety efforts!
Now that’s a winner!