Introduction Information from the National Accident Statistics and Cost reveals that over 10,000 United States employees sustain injuries on the job every day and about 15 of them succumbing to their injuries. The average cost related to these injuries was approximately $45 billion in 2010 and a further $40 billion every year in direct wage substitution and health expenses. Job injuries also have indirect yearly expenditures of $70-$150 billion. Over 3 million United States employees had job-related accidents in 2010 (National Safety Council, 2001). These worrying statistics have made businesses and government agencies to focus more on safety issues in order to avoid legal penalties, boost employee morale, enhance productivity, and reduce labor turnover. It was through this initiative that safety incentive programs were adopted by many organizations to reward safe work practices. The main objectives of the safety awards programs were to increase safety awareness among employees, minimize recordable accidents, and promote safe work practices among workers. However, the functionality and reliability of safety incentives programs to promote safe work practices have proven tricky for many organizations in the United States leading to the establishment of various safety administration institutions such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which regulates safety programs for companies (Geller, 2005). This paper discusses the merits and demerits of injury-based, behavior-based, and process-based programs as three independent safety awards programs. Injury-based programs These safety programs are based on the rates of injuries and accidents as a measure of rewarding employees and teams. Workers and groups are awarded for avoiding or minimizing industrial mishaps during specified periods. Illness oriented safety programs operate on the suppositions that facilities and equipments are secure and do not induce mistakes, workers have appropriate education and understanding on how to handle machinery, and industrial accidents are chiefly the fault of employees’ carelessness or negligence of safety. Injury-based safety programs have the advantages of giving awards like bonuses and prices due to the lack or a minimal number of job-related injuries (Leape & Berwick, 2005). In addition, this program has the benefit of creating a safer work environment since workers are always under pressure to work safely or lose some benefits. Safe work environments reduce accidents and enhance safety vigilance among employees. However, this approach directly compares rewards with the rates of injuries. This is a condition that poses the temptation for employees not to disclose some injuries for fear of losing personal rewards or denying their teams an incentive. This has the effect of distorting the injury frequency. The consequences of not reporting an accident or an injury may be insignificant or huge to the employee involved. Lack of reporting injuries falsely reduces the company’s tragedy incidence rate and makes it able to show to the safety management agencies and its head office that their safety operations have advanced; the actual accident figures are concealed (National Safety Council, 2001). This often makes it difficult for regulato