Tools for Motivating Employees Towards Safe Work

Involving production personnel in HSE issues is one of the most difficult tasks for any enterprise. When basic safety requirements have already been implemented, further reduction of injury rates requires the conscious, voluntary participation of the employees themselves. In his presentation, Dmitry Mindubaev, Head of the HSE Department at the Balakovo branch of Apatit JSC (PhosAgro Group), analyzes effective motivation tools that help transition employees from being passive executors to active participants in the risk identification process.

From classic nominations to digital solutions

Using his company as an example, the speaker shows how traditional reward methods can be transformed into a transparent system. It is based on several voluntary initiatives covering different levels of engagement:

• "Best Employee" and "Best Department" — programs where employees and workshops can nominate themselves based on established criteria. This stimulates the development of leadership qualities, the correct use of PPE, and the maintenance of high safety standards in the workplace.
• "Safety Idea" — a rethinking of the rationalization proposal system. Employees suggest targeted improvements to working conditions (for example, installing navigation signs on the territory for new employees). The best ideas receive funding and are implemented in practice, while the authors are rewarded up to the level of the CEO's annual bonus, which allows successful experience to be broadcast to other sites.

Public control: how to overcome the fear of reporting a violation

Special attention in the presentation is paid to the implementation of a mobile application for recording unsafe acts and conditions. The main problem companies face when launching such IT products is personnel resistance and the perception of the tool as a way to "snitch on a neighbor."

To break this barrier, mandatory registration was disabled at the first stage. Switching the system to incognito mode relieved psychological tension: employees began to actively download the application and send observation cards. To popularize the tool at the start, authorized HSE representatives were involved. Only after the application proved its usefulness did the company return the authorization feature and tie it to a system of material and non-material motivation for the most active users.

The application is integrated into a unified corporate safety system. This solves the issue of confidentiality: photos taken are not saved in the employee's personal phone gallery, but immediately go to the enterprise's secure perimeter.

Feedback as the foundation of engagement

Dmitry Mindubaev emphasizes the critical importance of working with the received data. Recording a risk is only the first step. If an employee sends an observation card and does not receive a response, the tool quickly loses trust.

Each request must be processed by specialized experts: either the problem is eliminated "here and now," or responsible persons and deadlines are assigned with the allocation of additional funding. A mandatory condition is providing feedback to the author. This shows the employee that their voice is heard and that they are a significant part of the enterprise's safety mechanism. The accumulated database of observations allows for deep analytics: identifying problematic workshops and typical violations (for example, when working at heights) in order to timely adjust preventive work.

What you will learn from this webinar:

• How to properly combine material and non-material incentives to engage production personnel?
• How can authorized HSE representatives be used to popularize new digital tools?
• How to ensure information security and prevent data leaks when using mobile applications to record violations?
• Why does the personal example of a manager (starting with the correct use of PPE) remain the main factor in changing the safety paradigm?
• How to build a feedback system so that employees do not lose interest in finding and registering potential risks?