LTIFR, production plans, ratings, zero budget, and non-monetary motivation: a recipe for a successful solution from Metalloinvest

Amidst cost optimization and business process restructuring, industrial enterprises face a serious challenge: how to maintain a high level of occupational safety when motivation budgets are frozen or non-existent. Traditional incentive programs often remain isolated initiatives of the HSE department, failing to resonate deeply with production management. In her presentation, Ekaterina Rogova shares practical experience in transforming a non-monetary motivation system that has enabled production managers to become the primary owners and drivers of safe operations.

Evolution of approaches: from risk-based incentives to comprehensive assessment

Previously, the company employed a classic engagement scheme: employees recorded risks via a corporate mobile app, earned points, and exchanged them for branded merchandise. This yielded an impressive initial result—the number of risks reported by workers increased by 250%. However, a systemic problem emerged during the transition to operational activities. The initiative relied solely on the efforts of safety specialists. As soon as the HSE vertical reduced its activity, the process on the ground stalled. It became clear that motivation disconnected from key performance indicators (KPIs) only functions in "manual mode."

Architecture of the new rating: safety, reliability, efficiency

The solution was a fundamental revision of the assessment concept. The new production culture system is based on three equal pillars: safety, reliability, and efficiency. Each block is assigned an equal weight (33% each), allowing departments to compensate for temporary dips in one area through increased focus on another.

The foundation of the updated rating consists of so-called "cut-off criteria." If a department fails to meet its production plan or experiences a fatal accident, it is automatically excluded from the rating and placed in the "red zone." This decision organically linked the company's strategic goals with the daily routine of the workshops, confirming in practice the thesis: effective production cannot be unsafe.

Key process metrics

In the safety block, the focus shifted from the number of identified risks to the quality and speed of addressing them. Strict but achievable process metrics were introduced:

• Risk response speed. A target of 7 days was set for resolving basic non-conformities (e.g., issues on walkways that previously caused a significant percentage of minor injuries).
• Quality of line walks. A rule was introduced: at least four corrective actions must be developed for every single identified non-conformity. This encourages managers not just to fix a local problem, but to replicate solutions across similar areas.
• Personnel engagement. The metric evaluates the number of actually mitigated risks per employee, rather than just those reported in the system.

Simultaneously, the reliability and efficiency blocks assess the quality of standardized audits (target: 80%), the achievement of cost-reduction KPIs, and the promptness of responses to employee requests from problem-solving boards.

Implementation practice with a zero budget

The speaker emphasizes that launching such a system does not require complex IT solutions. Initial calculations are performed in standard spreadsheets, and results are visualized through clear dashboards. To popularize the results, free internal channels are used—for example, setting screensavers on corporate computers to celebrate the best-performing departments.

Non-monetary incentive tools were revised toward deep personalization. Rotating trophies for the best workshops cost minimal money, but their public presentation by managing directors creates a powerful competitive effect. Instead of standard template certificates, personalized letters of appreciation are used, detailing a specific safe action taken by the employee (e.g., stopping faulty equipment to prevent colleague injury). Such targeted, sincere gratitude from leadership generates a strong emotional response and is valued by the team significantly higher than formal awards.

Key questions answered by the presentation

• How to combine LTIFR, production plan fulfillment, and cost reduction into a single, transparent departmental rating?
• Which process metrics allow for assessing the real quality of line walks rather than just checking boxes?
• How to make production workshop managers the primary ideologists of safety culture?
• Which non-monetary incentive tools work most effectively with a complete lack of a dedicated budget?
• How to launch a pilot motivation project in a few departments using basic office software?