Imagine attending a sporting event to watch your favorite team, only to find out that they will not keep track of the score. How would you feel? Without a scoreboard, nobody knows who is winning. Doesn’t everyone want to know who is winning?

Are your scoreboards functioning well at work? Keeping score is the secret to inspiring accountability, motivation, positive behavior, and continuous improvement in the workplace. Metrics that are aligned to organizational goals encourage the desired behaviors and the scoreboard enables positive recognition.

As I shared prior, many organizations have too many lagging indicators when it comes to safety. Zero injuries, lower incident rate, lower Experience Modification Factor (E-Mod), and so on. Bring the focus to meaningful leading indicators (behavior and activities) which will drive best-in-class performance. Best-in-class organizations are 80% leading and 20% lagging indicators.

Scoreboard best practices that will maximize your performance and effectiveness are:

• Clearly defining expectations by department and for each person
• Include the person’s full name
• Rank the best performer at the top down to the lowest performer at the bottom
• Use colors to signify achievement – Exceeding Expectations (GOLD), Meeting Expectations (GREEN), Not Meeting Expectations (RED)
• Measure regularly, ideally daily but at minimum weekly
• Update and share your scorecard at the same time and day each week, like clockwork
• Provide meaningful recognition monthly
• Reset the scoreboard monthly
• Stay consistent

Ranking people and color coding creates healthy benchmarks, which will spur friendly competition and drive improvement.  Sharing cumulative results weekly allows people to step up their effort to meet or exceed expectations.  

Celebrate your winners monthly.  The most powerful recognition really depends on your culture.  More to follow on highly effective recognition elements in my next blog.  For those not meeting expectations, approach them with care and ask why they did not meet the mark, any lessons learned, any support or resources they need to meet expectations next month.

Resetting each month allows people to start fresh, just like an inning in baseball, quarter in football, set in tennis, etc.  Going to quarterly recognition will lead to people being defeated and disengagement.  Moving to semi-annual, creates disengagement for longer.

Remember, our proven process SHEILD™ yields 95% sustainable engagement of your team.  You will essentially enhance your leaders to become coaches and champions of safety, focused on areas that are most critical. 

Determine the percentage of your safety metrics (Scoreboard) that are leading indicators. Dump lagging indicators and add leading indicators until you get to 80% leading indicators.
Revise your scoreboard and improve your performance by integrating the best practices.
Celebrate your Winners (Top Performers). Thank them often for exceeding expectations and make them feel appreciated.

Next Week, We Will Explore:

Learn why it is so vital We will: Highly Effective Recognition

1. Discover various effective forms of recognition
2. Explore Decide what recognition is right for your organizational culture
3. Learn how to make people feel appreciated and valued  

In 1995, my wife and I packed up and moved west in pursuit of opportunity and the dream of building a future for our family. Today, 29 years later, our twins—our greatest pride—are beginning their own journeys at rival colleges in Arizona. They are my “Why,” the driving force behind everything I do, including my passion for workplace safety and accountability.

Over the past 30 years, I’ve worked across multiple industries as a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), leading efforts to create safer, more accountable work environments. From commercial insurance companies to some of the largest construction firms in the country, I’ve seen how accountability—or the lack of it—can make or break an organization. In 2012, my partners and I founded a safety consulting firm, built from scratch, with a shared mission to improve workplace safety.

Through it all, one thing has remained clear: a culture of accountability is the bedrock of highly successful businesses. But it’s not just about policies and procedures—it’s about engaging and empowering people to take ownership of their work and safety. It’s about showing that you genuinely care about your people. In this blog series, I’ll explore how leaders can foster this culture and, in turn, create engaged, safer, and more resilient organizations.

Get access to in-depth insights, expert tips, and the latest trends in workplace safety directly to your inbox.

Don’t leave your safety program to chance. Ensure it’s as strong, effective, and proactive as it can be with our expert guidance and resources.