LEGAL — Obtain legal advice covering IRS issues surrounding gifts, awards or other items used in the program.

GOALS — Establish measurable and attainable goals, such as reducing OSHA recordable incidents by 50 percent compared to the last three-year average, or scoring 80 percent or more on housekeeping audits over a six-month period.

BUDGET — Establish budget restrictions based on a portion, such as 50 percent, of the anticipated savings from reaching safety goals.

ELIGIBILITY — Determine who will be eligible for awards. For example, will eligibility be based on individual or group safety performance?

RULES — Establish written rules, such as whether employees will compete against their past safety records or will departments compete against each other, and time limits for the campaign, and post them for all to see and review. Try to anticipate potential problems when setting these rules. For example, if two departments tie for an award, will there be a tiebreaker or will both receive awards? Also decide who will judge the competition.

AWARDS — Allow workers to participate in the selection of awards, bearing in mind the established budget. Awards don’t need to be expensive; they may be as simple as a management parking space for the winner. While luxury items that employees normally wouldn't buy for themselves should be considered, offering cash is not recommended. It's often helpful to divide anticipated savings by the number of eligible workers to establish a per-employee value to use when choosing awards.

STARTING — Before you implement the program, make sure you have all needed materials, including actual awards, tracking programs, judges and informational handouts. Start with a flourish of promotions and consider giving away small tokens to capture employee interest.

PROMOTING — Keep employees' interest up by regularly giving them information on their progress toward incentive goals.

WINNERS — Announce winners and issue awards promptly. Interest may wane if there's a lag between the campaign's end and the presentation of awards. Prompt conferral of awards also helps generate interest in the next campaign. The best results are obtained when top management supports the program and is visible in promoting it and handing out awards.

POSTING — Post final standings promptly so that everyone knows where they finished.

RECOGNITION — Provide recognition in addition to prizes. Have top management present awards, and give winners publicity in newsletters and on bulletin boards.

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