Safety Signs – What Does Your Business Need?

As a business owner or operator, you have regulations that govern what safety signs you have in your property.  You need to be able to clearly inform staff and visitors of things like where to go if there is a fire or any requirements for being in the building.  But you must avoid adding too many signs and risk them becoming confusing.  So what safety signs does your business need?

Safety sign regulations

Under the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulation 1996, employers, duty holders and others with responsibility for controlling the workplace, site or premises have a requirement regarding safety signs.  These need to be put in place where there is a significant risk to health and safety of employees or visitors.  Signs need to:

• Clear and legible
• Identify prohibited actions (such as no access)
• Identify safeguards thatmust be used (ear protection, hard hats)
• Warn of a hazard (corrosive materials used)
• Direct towards a fire exit or firefighting equipment

As well as being in place, signs need to be legible and there must not be too many so there’s no confusion about what is being told to people.

Types of safety signs

There are a few categories of safety signs that you might need to consider having in your business depending on what you do.  Some of them will be familiar to anyone as we see them in many places while others are more specialist, depending on the risks within the business.  You can work with a sign maker to get the right signs and ensure they meet regulations in terms of colour and graphics.

Prohibitions signs tell of a behaviour that is prohibited because it would increase or cause danger.  This might be something like ‘no access for unauthorised persons’ and usually features a red circle with a line through it.  Warning signs often use stark colours like black and yellow to warn of dangers such as electricity, with a lightning bolt style graphic.

Mandatory signs are those that tell people what must be done such as ‘eye protection must be worn’ and will feature a graphic illustrating the required behaviour.  Emergency exit signs are one of the most commonly seen and often are green with an arrow and a running person pointing towards the nearest emergency exit.

There are also colours associated with different signs such as yellow meaning be careful to take precautions.  The symbols or pictograms used can fall under the British Standard so as to ensure you comply, work with a sign maker who understands what these are.

Get the right safety signs

The great thing about working with sign makers in Willenhall is that you can get the safety signs you need as well as other key signs and graphics.  This can include shop signs and window graphics, vehicle graphics and magnetic signs, banner printing and exhibition signs for special events and even vinyl signs for the outside of your business.  This saves time finding different people to cover the different needs of the business and ensure everything is high quality.