ADVICE & OPINION
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Kevin Rowe, Managing Director of SafetyBuyer.com describes the most
common mistakes made when placing safety signs
In a busy workplace, employees
come into contact with many
potential risks on a daily basis. In
certain sectors where workers have to
handle hazardous materials, that risk
is greatly increased.
For these workplaces, incorporating
safety signs into the work environment is
a proven way to minimise risks and keep
employees safe at work. Moreover, it is
a requirement of UK business owners to
provide su icient warnings of potential
risks to their employees, as outlined in
the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and
Signals) Regulations 1996(i).
The regulations state that:
» Employers must take into account the
results of their risk assessments before
deciding when and where to use safety
signs.
» Safety signs must be provided and
maintained in circumstances where
there is a significant risk to health and
safety that has not been removed or
controlled by other methods.
» Safety signs must not be used as a
substitute for other means of controlling
risks to employees.
16 FEBRUARY 2020
» Safety signs are not needed when no
significant risks are present, with the
exception of certain fire safety signs that
are required under all circumstances.
» Companies must ensure that their
employees are aware of and understand
the meaning of safety signs.
The regulations provide the groundwork
for employers to make sure that no
injuries occur due to negligence.
However, there are a number of
mistakes that FMs and business owners
can make regarding the placement
of their safety signage that can cause
problems and leave sta members at
risk.
FINDING YOUR PLACE
One of the most frequent errors made
when implementing safety signs in a
workplace is simply placing the signage
in the wrong place. This can seem quite
insignificant, but the placement of a
sign can have a dramatic impact on
its usefulness and e ectiveness - for
example, placing a sign above head
height means that workers won’t see
it unless they are specifically looking
for it.
Other issues regarding the
placement of a sign can arise when
the warning is placed too far from
the intended hazard - meaning that
workers don’t associate the sign with
the hazard it relates to. Alternatively,
having the warnings too close to a
hazard can have a similar e ect, as
workers are unable to read the notice
until they are already in danger.
To avoid these types of issues, signs
should be placed in highly visible
areas, ideally at eye level, and should
not be obscured by other objects.
Additionally, if a safety notice is
required in a poorly lit location, it’s
crucial that the signage is illuminated
to make sure it isn’t missed by those
working in the area.
LESS IS MORE
Although it seems counter-intuitive,
using too many safety signs can be
almost as bad for health and safety
as not having the necessary notices
at all. The first and most obvious
reason is that employees will likely to
be overwhelmed by the number of
notices and may struggle to find the
information that is relevant to their
needs - or worse, the sheer number of
notices may cause workers to ignore
the information entirely.
In certain industries, employees
will come into contact with a number
of unavoidable hazards on a regular
basis. In these types of workplaces,
where a number of warning signs
are required, the best approach is
to ensure that the most essential
warnings take priority, while warnings
that relate to specific equipment or
areas of the workplace are placed in
those relevant locations.
Site-wide safety information can be
placed at a few central locations to
ensure that employees have all of the
relevant information, without needing
to cover the entire workplace with
signage that will draw the eye away
from the most important notices.
MAINTAINING STANDARDS
Once you have determined the best
locations for signage to be placed, it is
important to avoid another common
mistake - failing to keep the notices well
maintained.
In many workplaces across the
country you can find broken, faded
or corroded safety signs that not
only a ect the cleanliness of the
workplace, but also make the notices
di icult or impossible to read, severely
compromising the usefulness of the
warning.
As well as keeping permanent
signage well maintained from a fixture
standpoint, it’s also important to
regularly review the notices and ensure
that the information on it remains
relevant and correct. This is particularly
important if circumstances change in
the workplace.
For example, this may be necessary
when a piece of equipment has been
replaced, the workplace has been
renovated and emergency exit routes
have changed; additionally, when
certain members of sta have moved
on, safety notices may need to be
updated to reflect who the current first
aider or health and safety liaison is.
In all of these cases, the safety signs
should be updated to reflect the new
information and all employees should
be notified of the changes.
KEEP IT CLEAR
The final - and arguably the most
important - step is to ensure that all
signage features clear messaging and
that employees can quickly understand
the meaning behind the notice.
Although safety signs are mostly a
visual tool, it can o en be di icult to
decipher what the notice is warning
against without the complementary
text. Additionally, if a sign has too
much text, workers may have trouble
understanding it.
An ideal safety sign should make it
clear what the warning is and state in
simple terms the precise nature of the
hazard and the action that should be
taken to avoid it. By placing welldesigned
signage in the right places,
your business will be able to achieve
significant improvements to health and
safety.
(i) www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1996/341/
contents/made
FAST FACTS
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