The YDR! Card features a list of desired employee behaviors, and attitudes, customized to address a specific company’s industry and safety concerns. In general, companies use the YDR! Cards to allow supervisors to recognize employees caught in the act of working safely.
Since launching a new safety program in September 2006 that features the YDR!Cards, Program Coordinator Terry Carmon says ROME NASA has achieved what every safety manager desires: high employee participation levels, improved employee attitudes, and a changed safety culture.
Carmon added that the participation levels actually serve as leading indicators that employees are performing the desired behaviors on the YDR!Cards.
Luckey Thomas, a supervisor in the Well Maintenance Department, uses the YDR!Cards as a behavior incentive as well as an on-the-spot recognition tool.
“We have ‘observations’ that employees must complete for one another,” Thomas says. “The person who turns in the most observations for the week receives a YDR! Card.”
Thomas says employees review all the observations for the week and vote on the best one, awarding the person who completed it with a YDR!Card.
Rome NASA’s program is designed so that employees can redeem the cards for gift catalog points or a chance at winning a “dream vacation.”
“We believe in rewarding a person in a group,” Thomas says. “I recognize employees on the spot for what they’re doing, but then reward them with a YDR!Card the next day in front of the group.”
“Employee involvement is the key,” Thomas concludes. “The YDR!Cards has made a mark—it’s really brought involvement up.”