Humor in Safety: Making Workplace Messages Matter

Can humor actually make a workplace safer? It can—but only when it has a purpose. In workplace safety and health programs, its use can be a powerful way to capture attention, encourage employee involvement, and make important safety messages more memorable. But its use also carries risks. Used poorly, it can minimize a serious hazard, offend employees, or make an injury or unsafe behavior seem like something to laugh about. The difference between effective and ineffective use often comes down to one simple question: Does the humor strengthen the health and safety message, or does it become the message?

Safety professionals know that employees are exposed to countless safety communications. Posters, toolbox talks, training sessions, emails, signs, videos, procedures, and reminders are all important, but repetition can eventually make even the most important message feel routine. Laughter can help break through that routine. A clever phrase, unexpected image, or lighthearted presentation can make employees stop, look, listen, and—most importantly—remember. The objective isn't to make safety funny. The objective is to make safety more engaging and memorable.

One example comes from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where a safety culture work group developed a campaign addressing slips, trips, and falls. The campaign experimented with phrases such as “Get a Grip” and “A fall—a slip—a hospital trip.” Their wordplay was designed to attract attention while reinforcing straightforward behaviors: use handrails, walk mindfully, and put away the phone. The campaign wasn't making fun of people who fell. Instead, it used a little truth to focus attention on a serious and common workplace hazard.

That's one of the biggest advantages of appropriate health and safety communications: creating an opening for a more serious conversation. A humorous headline might get someone's attention, but the safety information that follows provides the reason for paying attention. A memorable phrase can make a toolbox talk easier to recall later. A humorous safety video can generate discussion among employees. When people begin talking about the message rather than simply receiving it, they become more involved in the safety process.

Humor can also help make safety communication feel less like another directive from management. That doesn't mean safety rules should be softened or treated casually. Rather, a well-designed message can invite employees to think about a hazard and recognize their role in controlling it. That kind of involvement is particularly valuable in organizations trying to build a stronger safety culture. Employees who discuss hazards, identify risks, and remind one another about safe behaviors are participating in safety—not merely complying with it.

Emotion can make the message even more effective. Evans General Contractors, for example, has used humor and emotion in its “Everyone Home Safe” campaign to engage employees around safe practices. The underlying idea is important: workplace safety isn't simply about avoiding a “recordable” incident or meeting a corporate metric. It's about people going home safely at the end of the day. Humorous situations can capture attention, while emotion can provide the personal connection that makes the message meaningful.

But there is a significant potential downside in safety communication: humor can easily cross the line. A joke about a hazard can unintentionally make the hazard seem less serious. When directed at an injured employee can be humiliating or offensive. Even a joke that seems harmless to one group may be inappropriate to another because of differences in age, culture, experience, or personal background. Once a safety message becomes offensive or insensitive, its ability to educate is diminished.

Consider the difference between making a joke about a hazard and making a joke about the person affected by the hazard. Insurance advertising sometimes uses characters such as “Mayhem” to turn accidents and poor decisions into comedy. That's effective advertising because the objective is entertainment and brand recognition. A workplace safety program has a different responsibility. If employees laugh at the accident—or, worse, laugh at the person who was injured—the safety message can become distorted. Instead of remembering the behavior that could prevent an incident, employees may simply remember the joke.

That leads to an important rule for safety professionals: Never make the person who could get hurt the subject of a humorous situation. The safer target for is the situation, the risk, the common mistake, or the behavior that needs to change. Even then, humorous situations should be reviewed carefully before they are released. What seems clever to the person creating a poster or video may have an entirely different effect on the employees who see it.

Another potential problem is overuse. If every safety communication relies on jokes, employees may begin to view the entire safety program as entertainment rather than an important part of their work. The "humorous side" of safety and health is most effective when it is used selectively. A serious message often doesn't require laughter, and some subjects—such as fatalities, traumatic injuries, or highly sensitive health issues—may be better addressed with a straightforward and respectful approach.

The best safety and health communications follow a few basic principles. First, have a clear safety, health and operational excellence objective. Know what behavior or hazard the communication is addressing before developing the joke or humorous concept. Second, make the safety message stronger than the humor. If employees remember the joke but not the safety lesson, the communication has failed. Third, direct communication toward the risk—not the person. Avoid embarrassing, blaming, or ridiculing employees. Fourth, test the message. Ask people from different roles or perspectives how they interpret it before putting it into use. Finally, make sure the what is allegedly funny supports the organization's overall safety culture and values. Here's one of those companies: ShieldMark Inc., manufacturer of Mighty Line Floor Tape and Floor Signs.

Ultimately, the goal of workplace safety communication isn't laughter. It's employee engagement. Humor can be an effective tool for getting employees to stop, pay attention, participate, and remember. But it should be used thoughtfully, strategically, and with respect for the seriousness of workplace health and safety.

The best use of laughter in safety and health leaves employees with more than a smile. It leaves them with a behavior they remember—and a reason to make the safer choice, even when no one is watching.

That's Humor With a Purpose.