Posted byWhen was the last time you were rewarded for a good investigation?
This question is NOT a comment about how good or bad your investigations are.
This question is about how frequently or infrequently management rewards investigators.
Leave your answer here.
Some of you (maybe most) may have never had a special reward for doing an investigation. Let me know about that too …
Category: Human Performance, Investigations
29 Comments »
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Never. Hadn’t really thought about it. Always just thought it was a part of my job as a safety geek :)
Comment by Jim — August 6, 2010 @ 8:57 am
I never received any special reward until I started System Improvements. In fact. being assigned to perform an investigation was a kind of punishment when I was in the Navy (it meant that one of your guys had caused an incident).
After starting System Improvements, getting a “contract” to facilitate an investigation was, in itself, a reward. You think about things differently when you are self-employed.
Comment by Mark Paradies — August 6, 2010 @ 10:12 am
I was at a conference today and found out that one nuclear utility gives there employees a 3% yearly pay bonus just to be qualified to do an investigation and find root causes.
Wow!
Comment by Mark Paradies — August 6, 2010 @ 10:14 am
I am regularly thanked by by manager for completing incident investigations promptly without letting them drag on over shift rotas on an offshore platform. This is reward enough for me. For me it is much easier to respond in a timely manner to any investigation while information is still fresh.
We as a team spend more time carrying out Active Monitoring to build a safer environment in the first place. All people are involved in this throughout the installation. Findings of all active monitoring is shared with the workforce daily to build safety culture. Monthly awards made for best contribution from both a safety and environmantal viewpoint.
For me the guys that developed the Active Monitoring tools are the one’s deserving of thanks as they reduce the amount of investigation that I have to undertake.
Comment by John Dryburgh — August 10, 2010 @ 3:25 am
Investigations are part of my role and I do not expect rewards, a pat on the back or a comment ‘good job’ is more than enough recognition.
Comment by Wendy Foulkes — August 10, 2010 @ 3:25 am
Only reward I have received is verbally – “Well done. Good piece of work” which is nice to hear.
Likewise – being involved in a Navy (RN) investigation was an experience to say the least.
Now I do it for a living though, I can’t say I would ever expect a reward as it is part of what my job is about. For me the reward is when other people recognise how effective a good RCA investigation can be.
Nice thought though to receive a bonus when the root cause is determined! A lot to thank TapRoot for!!
Comment by Sean — August 10, 2010 @ 3:29 am
Investigations are considered as one my many job roles. Satisfaction can be obtained when others are prevented from suffering a similar incident. However, rewards (financial / official recognition can be an added incentive when the task was very difficult/ protected and can also be a way of advertising this is an important factor in comunicating what went wong / how to prevent or learn from it). One of your contributers (John Dryburgh) mentioned active monitoring tools, if he can, please explain what this consists of (e.g. accident causation and analysis tool such as TapRoot software?)
Comment by phil — August 10, 2010 @ 3:35 am
Reward never, word of encouragement none so far, only more queries….
Comment by Selvaraj Venkatachalam — August 10, 2010 @ 3:36 am
Never.
Comment by Aaron — August 10, 2010 @ 9:10 am
Very little affirmation for any aspect of my job performed well, including investigations.
It is not absolutely necessary, but would be very nice to receive.
Comment by Joe — August 10, 2010 @ 9:24 am
NASA rewards members of certain high-level mishap investigations at periodic meetings with private industry. It is rare that people who do the routine investigations – no matter how thoroughly – are recognized. Mishap investigatgion at NASA is not a safety geek’s job…
Comment by RON — August 10, 2010 @ 9:24 am
A very thought provoking question. I can only remember twice being thanked/job well done by superiors/peers. I have seen other investigation programs that evaluate the effectiveness of an investigation and action items that provided feedback. The question made me think differently on how to present investigation training.
Comment by James — August 10, 2010 @ 9:28 am
I don’t think the issue of whether investigators get rewards or not is as important as it is how we recognize those individuals who honestly support our investigatory efforts with facts, data and most importantly, the truth. As investigators, we are going to do our best to conduct a good investigation regardless of whether or not we get rewarded. The most significant issue I see is how do we get people to be open with us and share the facts and truth without fear of retribution. Using rewards might be one way to encourage open sharing of information. Another approach might be a “hold harmless” agreement at the start of investigations that ensures no retribution to individuals for telling the truth even if it implicates them. After all, it’s about learning!
Comment by David Bourbon — August 10, 2010 @ 9:41 am
Never. Sure would be nice but I don’t sit around hoping it will happen some day.
Comment by Ron — August 10, 2010 @ 9:48 am
I have never received a reward for doing an investigation feeling that it was just part of my job and was expected of me. Besides, it has to be done whether or not there is any reward in it for me or not. I am not saying it wouldn’t be nice to receive a simple “Thank you” because that would be nice especially for the lengthy, time-consuming investigations that successfully determine a root cause. I am grateful that management has the faith in me to ask me to do investigations and it is very enjoyable and rewarding.
Comment by Charlie St.Cyr — August 10, 2010 @ 9:49 am
No rewards or encouragement. In fact, it became quite clear to me that the management at our branch of the organization was not serious about performing investigations which might yield any actual progress, but was only doing so in order to satisfy a organizational requirement from the main corporate office. It’s been 10 months since we completed our Tap Root training, and we haven’t completed a single investigation.
Comment by Winston Smith — August 10, 2010 @ 9:51 am
I have been at the same position for almost 8 years. Investigations are part of my role. I generally get only verbal or emailed atta-girls, however once a client sent flowers for a tricky account analysis which saved her beaucoup bucks which led to being recognized in the company newsletter. It was a very nice, unexpected reward which was followed up immediately by my superiors sending all the complex questions to me for analysis. Win-win.
Comment by Anne Hill — August 10, 2010 @ 9:58 am
I have never received any type of reward to recognition for any of my investigations. I also have never heard of anybody else receiving any kind of recognition. What a novel concept!
Comment by Sherri — August 10, 2010 @ 10:17 am
I’ve never received any reward for work on any cause evaluation based upon the finished product. The best feedback, which is the best reward, tends to come from external organizations that review the cause evaluation and compliment the quality. Of course, it would feel best to hear this praise internally first.
Comment by Judd Sills — August 10, 2010 @ 10:21 am
Rewards always seem to be the most difficult thing for any manager/management system to provide. What is appropriate, what can and should be done. But it is nice to receive those atta-boys or atta-girls when deserved. From an investigative standpoint, many times my findings did not necessarily match with the “pre-conceived” ideas of managers. So the pat on the back was self provided for providing a factually based analysis with strong Corrective Actions and Recommendations. And too, many times the positive feedback comes from long-term savings not necessarily from the direct findings…..
Comment by Edward Skompski — August 10, 2010 @ 11:10 am
I have received thanks on numerous occasions from people involved in the investigation, including the person considered to be “at fault” in the incident when they were expecting to be grilled and disciplined. I haven’t received recognition from management, and in fact have had some grief after investigating something a manager was directly involved in.
Comment by Dave — August 10, 2010 @ 11:26 am
Like many of those who posted before me, my only reward has been an “atta boy” from my supervisor, or other professionals involved in the investigation. I derive my reward from the knowledge that I am doing something to prevent re-occurance down the road. One of the nice things about being involved in professional organizations is that you can be recognized by your peers, outside of your workplace. What more reward could a safety professional want?
Comment by Mark — August 10, 2010 @ 1:15 pm
No rewards from management beyond the aforementioned “atta boy”. The big reward is from field employees when my investigations and motives are respected enough to get real assistance and cooperation without suspicion and mis-direction.
Comment by Jeff — August 10, 2010 @ 2:25 pm
Never, but I’ve never really gave it much thought.
Comment by Daniel — August 10, 2010 @ 2:38 pm
I study Human Performance for a living and find all of these comments very interesting. As much as some of us may be hesitant to admit it, we all need reinforcement. I work at a large government institution that has relied heavily on people voluntarily qualifying to be accident investigators (Cause Analysts). As a new owner of the investigation process, I have had a lot of interaction with the cause analysts. My best analysts usually leave or don’t requalify because it has been such a negative experience for them. Their main complaint has been the ‘heavy handeness’ that some managers use to get the analysis or report to come out a certain way. Very few have reported being positvely reinforced for spending all of their discrestionary time (plus nights and weekends) creating a product for the same people who tear it a part. Before I paint a completely dismal picture, there are those pockets of excellence where managers turn into great leaders and acknowledge a good job when they see it. By the way everyone wants to work for those few ‘great’ leaders. I think we have a lot to learn on just what it is that influences people to want to give you their best.
Comment by Shane Bush — August 10, 2010 @ 4:50 pm
I have never been rewarded by the manager of an area that I investigated. Managers are fulsome in their encouragement for an investigation as long as they think that a perpetrator will be punished, but when root causes inevitably point to their own management system failures they go silent & unapproachable.
Comment by Phil — August 13, 2010 @ 5:14 pm
I have never received or expected a reward for an investigation since it is one of my primary work duties. I would welsome seeing a reward or recognition for the team members who do not have investigation as a job task.
What surprises me and dismays me is that I now measure the success of an investigation by the number of managers and superintendents who are upset by the final report. If I find that some people are pleased with the report, I sometimes feel that I didn’t go far enough.
I am currently working on a Safety Culture improvement project to identify “improvement opportunities”. If I could get one change implemented, it would be to change the attitude of some management to re-evaluate recommendations when the action items come due.
It would be a reward enough to see positive changes.
Comment by Chris DeMott — August 15, 2010 @ 12:04 am
I have never received rewards for good investigations from my employer. When I was a field officer and worked on special projects (eg. lowering incident rates in high hazard areas such as seismic or trucking industries), I did receive a few awards from industry.
My rewards now come from family members of injured or deceased workers for doing a thorough job in investigating incidents, preparing reports that become public, and on occasion taking employers to task in the court system.
Comment by Gene Wolkowycki — August 16, 2010 @ 11:34 am
At the time doing full time investigations at our nuclear facility an allowance was an incentive.
There is no better reward than Preventing Events!
The greatest recognition comes after gaining so much experience (in my case more than 500 investigations) that experience turns into wisdom to prevent events. I once had a dream about an accident (people getting killed by falling plates) it must have been triggered on just hearing of a modification the previous day. The morning first thing phoned the safety officer he had a look and found the exact same unsafe condition (plates stacked 20 m up above against a handrail not tied down) of the area that I dreamt of.
Comment by Francois — August 30, 2010 @ 1:53 am