Can humor actually make a workplace safer? It can—when it has a purpose. The goal isn’t to make safety funny. It’s to make people pay attention, get involved, and remember the behaviors that keep them safe. Humor can break through the routine of safety messages employees hear over and over, but it needs to support the message—not distract from it.

A safety culture work group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developed a campaign addressing slips, trips, and falls. They experimented with phrases like “Get a Grip” and “A fall—a slip—a hospital trip.” The goal wasn’t to make fun of anyone who fell. It was to get employees’ attention and reinforce simple behaviors: hold the handrail, walk mindfully, and put away the phone. Lab leadership recognized that a little humor could draw attention to a serious safety issue.

Recently, Evans General Contractors used humor and emotion in its "Everyone Home Safe" campaign to engage employees and reinforce safe practices. The point wasn’t to make accidents funny. It was to make people think about safety—and going home safe. They sought to apply humor with a purpose.

There’s a reason this approach works. Humor can make a toolbox talk more engaging, a poster more noticeable, or a safety message more memorable. When employees talk about safety, they’re not just receiving another directive—they’re becoming part of the safety process. That’s the kind of employee involvement every safety and operations leader should want.

Even effective humor has limits. Think of insurance ads where characters like “Mayhem” turn accidents and bad decisions into comedy. They may be memorable, but in workplace health and safety, that kind of humor can send the wrong message. If employees laugh at the accident—or at the person who was injured—they may take away the idea that accidents are funny. That is exactly the message leaders need to avoid.

So, here’s a simple rule: Never use the person who could get hurt as an element of humor. Use humor cautiously—and with review by others—to highlight the risk itself and get attention. Use emotion to create involvement, and both to reinforce the behavior you want employees to remember. Because the goal isn’t laughter. It’s engagement—and ultimately, getting people to make the safer choice, even when no one is watching.

That’s Humor With a Purpose.