Day after day, employees are asked to be safe while also continuing to produce at a set pace or meet a quota set by management. Doing both things well is often difficult, with one often being ignored at the benefit of the other. One way some companies are working to achieve a balance is offer incentive programs for employees.  When developing programs it is critical that a proactive approach be taken that encourage production and safety while not focusing only on injury rates/etc.  Programs that focus on recordable injury numbers can mean that employees fear reporting injuries, a critical aspect of safety compliance. In addition to motivation another contributor to the safety and productivity connection is behavior-based safety training.  It is critical that employees are trained throughout the year to continue to reinforce good safety behaviors.  Safety training that is completed on a one time and done basis with limited employee engagement, no measurement of comprehension and verification of safety behaviors, often results in higher safety incident rates and reduced productivity due to lost time incidents. If you are interested in how interactive behavior-based safety training and proactive safety incentives programs can help increase your productivity, reduce the Total Incident Rate (TIR) and improve your bottom line, please give Russell Associates a call.  We have been working with companies for over 35 years develop and design solutions to some of their stickiest problems.