All Star Incentive Marketing

Situation

Republic Services, formerly Allied Waste and one of the largest solid waste management companies in the country, needed to implement a nationwide safety incentive program for nearly 35,000 employees. The company aimed to promote safe work practices by improving safe driving habits, reinforcing safety training and enhancing the overall safety culture. Their goals included reducing the company’s liability caused by accidents, reducing workers’ compensation costs and lowering their OSHA incident rate.

They faced some big challenges. First, they were dealing with more than 600 divisions, each with an internal management staff. Almost half of those divisions were unionized and could not immediately participate in a safety incentive program. Participants were not all native English speakers and some did not have web access.

Solution

All Star created and launched a bilingual online/offline plateau level program and branded it as The Dedicated to Safety (DTS) Rewards Program. The program enables participants to accumulate and combine award vouchers so that they can save points and redeem them for higher level awards. The customized award web site, catalog, voucher and poster include the company’s corporate colors, logos and imagery. A rotating banner on the award site is used to communicate and highlight successes throughout the program. The program was designed to seamlessly handle award orders from both online and offline participants. Redemption vehicles are printed safety vouchers in both 10 and 25 point denominations.

To facilitate deployment and participation by local managers, All Star produced and distributed program announcement launch kits for each division, containing welcome letters, sample vouchers, participant announcement letters, posters, voucher order forms, catalogs and a training video. General Managers were instructed to distribute the materials and promote the program during scheduled safety meetings. All Star worked closely with Allied Waste’s safety team to design the program and then handled its launch and management, including concept, design, print production, web hosting, award sourcing, fulfillment and reporting.

In 2008, Allied Waste merged with Republic Services. The DTS Rewards Program web site and collateral material now carries the Republic Services name and branding. The safety program is now targeting the families of their workers to reinforce the importance of safety, using slogan contests, coloring contests, surveys, quizzes and kids’ videos.

Results

The DTS program won the Incentive Marketing Association’s Circle of Excellence Award for best safety incentive program in the country. Within its first year, the company’s total claim count was reduced by 760, with the largest reduction coming from divisions that were participating in the safety program. Divisions participating in the program have almost doubled the reduction in claims over non-participating divisions. Although the program supports online and offline participation, more than 90% of award orders have been placed online. Since the program’s inception in January 2005, it has successfully raised safety awareness, enhanced overall workplace safety, improved communication and reduced safety-related spending.

The cumulative claims reduction for the four-year period ending in December 2008 was more than 7,500, or approximately 47%. Each year, claims were reduced over the previous year as follows: