Workplace safety is something that most business owners take seriously. The last thing they want is for their workers, clients, or members of the public, to have accidents and suffer injuries.
After all, nobody wants to hurt anybody. In addition, these accidents are very bad for business. They can lead to the health and safety inspectors closing a company down while they investigate what happened. In addition, the business owner runs the risk of being fined, and potentially prosecuted.
Therefore, it is very much in everyone’s interests for workplace safety to be made a priority. There are many ways to do this.
One of the simplest steps to take is to make sure that you use good signage in your workplace. Doing so, reminds everyone of their responsibilities, points out dangers, and ensures that you can demonstrate to safety inspectors that you make keeping everyone safe, a priority.
However, it is important to realise that simply putting up a paper sign is no longer enough. In many countries, rules and regulations exist, which specify what type of signage you should be using, and in what areas it must be displayed.
Anyone who runs a business needs to familiarise themselves with what is required for their sector, or industry. They can do so by consulting with their local health and safety officer, or by going online and looking it up on their government, or local councils’ websites. Trade bodies, and other professional organisations, can also be a good source of information.
Armed with the knowledge of what is required the business owner can take the next step of sourcing the signs that they need. General health and safety signs are widely available online, so they are relatively easy to find. If you have a roadway or circuit that runs around the outside of your company’s premises, you will also need the type of specialist signage that you can buy from http://www.roadtrafficsigns.com/.
In most countries, there are rules and regulation that specify exactly what type of signs should be used, and where they need to be put up, within the workplace. It is important to familiarise yourself with these regulations, and look for signs that comply with the standards that apply in your area. Failure to do so could lead to all of your time and money going to waste because your workplace signage does not comply with the law.
Maintaining your signs
Once up you need to maintain your signage. If it is damaged, it is important to have a process in place that ensures that it is repaired, or replaced, quickly. You also have to make sure that it is cleaned on a regular basis, so that it is legible, at all times.
To make sure that you always have the correct signage in place it is well worth considering putting together a checklist, similar to the one on this page. Doing so will make it easy for each supervisor to check that the signage in their area is as it should be, and do so on a weekly or monthly basis.