Are you doing enough to keep people safe at your workplace?
Every day you will have staff members, visitors and passersby entering your workplace, or passing close to it.
According to Worksafe NZ, one in three businesses will use, handle or store hazardous chemicals on site. Those chemicals and their usage will need to be clearly identified for everyone’s protection. And even if you don’t have chemicals, there is still a responsibility to protect your team and the community.
What is the most cost effective and efficient method of maintaining this responsibility?
Having the correct signage at your workplace.
So, let’s look at how signage can help, the signs you need at your workplace and how they should be displayed.
How Safety Signage Can Help
If someone is entering your premises for the very first time, they won’t know what to expect or what they might encounter. Clear signage is the best way to alert and warn them.
Especially if you have hazardous chemicals at your premises. “Hazardous substances are a major contributor to the estimated 600-900 deaths and 30,000 cases of serious ill health from work-related disease each year in New Zealand. They can also cause immediate harm such as from fires and explosions.” [source]
Minimising the risk of injury is key and the correct signage helps you to do that. It will also advise emergency services what they are dealing with if an accident or incident does occur.
But signage is not only for dangerous hazards. It can also help in plenty of other ways, such as complying with building code by clearly making your exits. You can also alert people to where your assembly points are, where they can find the first aid kit, and of course, the toilets! This saves time and avoids confusion for everyone at your workplace.
The Signs You Need To Have
As we just mentioned, you are legally obliged to have signage that identifies any hazardous materials. This can’t simply be a piece of paper blue-tacked to the wall! The sign needs to be made of a durable material that won’t fade, be easy to read, in plain English, and must contain key information about the substances. This is obviously not an area you want to mess around with. So, ensure you get the correct sign for your space from a trusted professional like Safety Genius. Shop our HAZCHEM signs here.
Apart from your legal obligations, there are some other signs that you should have at your workplace. They are…
Emergency Signs – These are signs that help people to know what to do in an emergency. They mark exits, give directions, tell people to keep certain exits clear, designate the assembly point, and other helpful directions.
Can’t Do Signs – If there is an area that people must not enter or something that they cannot do (such as smoking or using a cellphone), then you can place a prohibition sign up.
Danger Signs – These signs help you to keep people safe. They quite literally warn of certain dangers around your workplace. They can include unauthorised entry, keep out warnings, no entry spaces, or specific dangers like asbestos or an open pit.
Warning Signs – Again, this is a self explanatory category. These signs warn people of things such as a wet floor that could be slippery, machinery in operation, vehicles moving, or any number of other dangers.
There are plenty of other signs available that would be specific to your industry. You can shop our entire safety sign collection here.
How You Should Display Your Signage
When it comes to your hazardous materials signage, you are legally obliged to have them at every vehicle and pedestrian entranceway of your premises. You are also required to have signage close to the hazardous substances. Just be careful not to place signage too close, as people still need time to be warned before they are on top of the danger.
When it comes to all your other signs, think of them like you are hanging a picture. You want to make sure they are in a visible spot at the right level to be seen. Too high and people won’t look up, too low and everyone will miss them. If they are obstructed by anything then it defeats the purpose of hanging the sign in the first place!
As you can see, safety signs play a key role in keeping people safe at your workplace. When it comes to choosing signage it is best to ask yourself “am I doing enough to protect the people at this space?” Doing nothing, or having no signage is obviously not acceptable.
If you would like some advice about the kind of signage you should have at your place, then drop us a line here at Safety Genius. We are more than happy to help.