ABSTRACT

Bonuses paid for financial performance generally outweigh those paid for safety performance. For the top leaders this imbalance is often overwhelming, with the result that their attention is focused far more on financial than safety performance. This chapter examines four ways in which incentives can be used to focus attention on major hazard risk. The first, suggested by the finance industry, is to defer the payment of bonuses for some years, so that employees, and particularly the most senior executives, have a personal interest in the longterm fortunes of the business. The second strategy is to develop indicators of how well catastrophic risk is being managed and to reward people based on these indicators. Third, the activities of most, if not all, senior managers are directly relevant to major hazard risk. Fourth, people can be acknowledged and rewarded when they take initiatives in relation to major hazard risk, in particular by reporting matters that could potentially end in disaster.