If you spend time correcting employees who violate safety rules, try to identify employees who always work safely and ask them to share the motivation for their choices. Hearing those personal experiences and motivations should encourage others to make better choices. Also, coworker feedback is usually more effective than expectations handed down from management. When employees find their own motives, they’ll choose to stay safe, which makes the safety manager’s job easier.

One safety manager asked every employee to bring in a family photo and added the caption, “this is why you stay safe.” Employees posted the photos where they’d see them every day. Years later, employees still report that looking at a family photo every day makes them think about safety and use a bit more caution on the job. Some of the most effective incentives cost almost nothing. Once employees discover their own motivation, they’ll choose to stay safe for their own benefit.