Cited as the largest single cause of lost work time and on-the-job fatalities for U.S. workers, motor vehicle crashes cause major nonrecoverable losses for U.S. businesses. Workplace programs to encourage employees to wear safety belts can thus help employers reduce traffic accident-related losses of work time and can substantially reduce the medical costs incurred when employees are involved in traffic accidents. Four methods have been effective in increasing safety belt use: laws, policies requiring usage, incentives, and education/information. A number of companies have been quite successful in combining education and incentives to increase safety belt use among their employees. The following factors have been especially important to program success: a strong and active commitment to increasing safety belt use on the part of management, a clearly defined and well-enforced policy of required safety belt use on the job, positive incentives for employee safety belt use, and an ongoing personalized safety education and training program for all employees that emphasizes the need for and benefits of using safety belts. Systematic recordkeeping of motor vehicle accidents in which safety belts were and were not in use, ongoing program promotions, and outreach efforts to encourage safety belt use among employees' families and friends have also been effective. (Fourteen examples of companies offering programs encouraging safety belt use, a discussion of resources for use in developing safety belt programs, a cost projections and savings worksheet, and a model safety belt use policy are included in this document.) (MN)