Before you plan your next safety meeting, ask yourself if your intent is to scare your workers into compliance.

Do you want them to be afraid, or to get them to voluntarily buy-in to safety as a personal value?

Accidents don't happen in the safety manager's office. They happen in the field. That's where the management of safety must take place. High safety performance doesn't magically come about in organized safety meetings, although good safety meetings are part of the solution. Safety performance happens when you deal with safety issues, decisions and behaviors one on one.

When marketing of safety goes up, safety-incident numbers go down.

Plain and simple, this works. Raise awareness of safety, sell the idea of safety and you will increase safety results. People choose safety when asked to.

Just because they wear safety gear doesn't mean they will choose safety in every moment.

Do not confuse an employee's willingness to abide by safety rules as proof that they accept safety as a personal value. Just because they have never had an incident doesn't mean they choose to buy-in to safety.