A workplace boot safety program is arguably one of the most valuable benefits you can offer to your employees—and it's easy to set up. In this step-by-step guide, we'll explain what boot programs are, how they benefit employers and employees across hundreds of industries, and how to start one at your company.

What Is a Safety Boot Program?

A safety boot program (or simply "boot program") is an agreement between a company and a boot vendor to provide discounted work boots to the company's employees simply and easily. A representative from the company (often the purchasing manager or someone in a similar role) creates an account with the vendor and works with an account representative to determine what kinds of boots the company will need, how many, and how often. The vendor rep then facilitates the creation of an account for each of the company's employees who will need boots. Once employee accounts are created, employees can then log in and buy their work boots directly from the vendor, often at discounted prices (or even free to the employee, if the company is "footing" the bill).

Other Benefits of a Boot Program

A workplace safety boot program has many other benefits as well.

Easy and Automatic Compliance

Many companies have different kinds of employees who need significantly different kinds of work boots; your construction crews need puncture-resistant boots with safety toes whereas your electricians need boots that protect them from electrical hazards. A boot program allows you to classify your employees by job type and to automatically ensure that all boots offered to any given employee will meet his or her specific, on-the-job needs. (This also makes OSHA compliance much easier and less prone to errors.)

Employee Wellbeing and Comfort

Even well-paid workers may find it difficult to budget for work boots if they have to buy their own footwear out of pocket. Consequently, many employees show up to work with "minimum viable" boots—inexpensive models that check all the compliance boxes but may be lacking in safety, comfort or features. A boot program is a great way to make high-quality boots more affordable for your team, whether you offer full vouchers, partial vouchers, or a simple discount. (We'll talk more about these options a bit later.)

Increased Productivity

Simply put, employees who are equipped with better gear do better work more consistently. A boot program can offer clear benefits to your company in terms of improving the quality of your products and services in the long run.

Cost Savings

In most cases, a boot program can save you and/or your employees a decent amount off the retail price on the purchase of new boots. Other potential savings include reduced administrative costs (employees buy their own boots on their own time, so you don't have to pay someone to spend hours and hours placing orders).

The most significant cost savings often come in the form of reduced medical and legal expenses, especially for larger companies and those who operate in especially hazardous industries. When you know that everyone on your team is coming to work with safe, high-quality boots, you can enjoy increased peace of mind knowing that you've lowered the risk of workplace injuries across the board.

How to Set Up a Boot Program

Just as your company's needs differ somewhat from those of other companies in your industry, not all boot vendors are created equal. The first step in setting up a boot program is to choose a vendor that can provide a wide selection of all the different kinds of work boots that your team will need.

Once you've found a good candidate, the next step is to work with a representative from the vendor to talk about the details. Be sure to cover:

• Boot brands and styles on offer
• Potential cost savings for you and/or your employees
• Stock levels, order fulfillment times and product availability guarantee (if any)
• How vouchers work (if you decide to go that route)
• The processes of creating new employee accounts and of deactivating accounts when employees leave the company (for example, some vendors can offer seamless integration with your payroll system so that each employee's status in the vendor's system can be updated automatically whenever changes happen)
• Return, refund and replacement policies
• The purchasing process
  • Is the buying process efficient and easy to understand?
  • Is the vendor's website clear, straightforward and easy to navigate? This consideration is especially important if a large percentage of your workforce is over a certain age or otherwise not especially tech-savvy.

Who Will Pay, and How?

For many employers, this is the biggest question. Will you be offering your employees a fixed yearly allowance that they can spend however they choose? Will you cover the cost of a single pair of boots every year up to a certain value? Will you pay the vendor directly, or will employees need to pay for their own boots and then request reimbursement?

In most cases, companies will choose one of three broad options:

• In the context of a boot program, a "full voucher" means that the employer will assess the average or median cost of boots that a given employee might need, then allow that employee to order boots directly from the vendor and to charge the company account. The exact amount and terms of the voucher can be customized to your needs.
• A "partial voucher" could refer either to a fixed allowance that is intended to cover only part of the boots' price or to a percentage-based amount paid by the employer (as opposed to a discount offered by the vendor). For example, you might offer partial vouchers that cover 50% of the cost of a single pair of boots, once per year, up to a maximum employer-paid amount of, say, $75.
• If your company isn't able to directly pay for or reimburse your employees' boot purchases, you can still work with the vendor to offer a discount to your team. Typically, the amount of the discount will vary based on the style, program size and program type, but larger discounts may be possible if you commit to a certain number or dollar value of orders. This way, your employees can still save money on safe, high-quality boots, and you'll know that they're buying boots that comply with both OSHA rules and your company's policies.

Get a Demo, Implement, and Promote

Once you have worked with the vendor to outline clear and specific terms for your new boot program, request a demo. This is a critically important step that many companies skip; don't skip it. Any reputable vendor should be able to offer you a trial account or a demo version of their software so that you can personally verify that their system works as intended and is easy to navigate. If a vendor doesn't have this capability or seems reluctant to offer a demo for some other reason, that's a red flag.

Give yourself some time (at least a few weeks) to log into the system every day and test it. Try out every function multiple times on different days: Place new orders, cancel orders, change shipping addresses, update employee payroll statuses, so on and so forth. Make note of any problems or hiccups you encounter and share them with the vendor's tech support team. (Speaking of tech support—also ensure that you have a clear, written agreement with the vendor about who will provide tech support to your employees, when, and how.)

Assuming you're satisfied with the demo, the next-to-last step is to implement a live version of the program and then do a final check with the vendor's account rep to ensure that everything still works as expected. Once you're confident that your new boot program is up and running, the last step is to make sure your employees know about it! (It's surprisingly easy to forget this part.) Send company-wide emails, talk about the boot program at your next meeting, give all your managers a one-page summary of the program to share with their respective teams—however you normally spread the word about company-wide changes. We recommend reminding all of your employees about the new program at least twice in the month or two after the initial announcement; some people will need to be reminded a few times before they remember that the new benefit exists.

One criterion of a great employee benefit is that it's more valuable to your employees than it is costly or difficult for you to provide. For many employers, a safety boot program checks this box easily. In some cases, a basic, no-frills boot program can even be set up for no up-front financial cost at all. If you have questions about setting up your own boot program, our team at WorkBoots.com is ready to help you get started.