How to Use Health and Safety Signage in the Workplace

Employee health and safety is a core component of every workplace. Which is why you'll often notice an abundance of safety signage, especially in industries with high injury risks like manufacturing.

There's also a focus on finding new and efficient ways to elevate workplace health and safety. Enter digital signage. The dynamic content capabilities and real-time information delivery of most digital screens enable workplaces to implement better safety signs and explore other ways to promote health and safety.

But how exactly does digital signage improve workplace safety, and where can you start implementing it for the best results?

The importance of safety signage in the workplace

Safety signage helps employees quickly understand the potential risks or dangers around equipment or materials and helps prevent accidents and injuries. This is especially important in an industrial environment where heavy machinery and potential safety hazards abound.

First of all, safety signage is usually a legal requirement - so displaying standard workplace safety signs isn't just a nice to have.

But in addition to fulfilling your legal requirements, safety signage can be helpful for:

• Creating a safe working environment
• Educating new employees or visitors
• Preventing accidents
• Securing the premises
• Sharing safety standards at the point of use

In public spaces, health and safety signage can help maintain safety standards and compliance, provide direction in cases of emergencies, or simply help prevent accidents. Some examples of this include:

• Hygiene and sanitation signage like restroom signs or no littering
• Emergency exit signs
• CCTV monitoring signs
• Hazard signs like "wet floor" and construction zone signs.

Types of safety signage

Safety signage comes in various forms, each serving a specific purpose. Here's a breakdown of the most common types:

1. Warning Signs: These alert workers to potential hazards, such as "Caution: Wet Floor" or "High Voltage Area."
2. Mandatory Signs: These signs indicate actions that must be taken, such as "Wear Safety Goggles" or "Hard Hats Required."
3. Prohibition Signs: Indicate actions that are not permitted, such as "No Smoking" or "Do Not Enter."
4. Emergency Information Signs: Provide critical information during emergencies, including "Exit" signs and first aid locations.
5. Fire Safety Signs: Show the location of firefighting equipment and escape routes.
6. Regulatory Signs: These highlight legal requirements, protocols and other regulations related to the workplace.

While many of these safety signs are often static, there are opportunities to present a more dynamic display.

Why use digital signage for health and safety in the workplace?

Digital signage can deliver dynamic information, making it particularly helpful for updating workers on current safety protocols and, of course, displaying safety signage.

But that’s not the biggest reason to adopt digital signage in the workplace; it’s all the other ways you can use screens to share information.

For example, you can use digital signage to meet OSHA requirements.

Instead of having one static sign that displays the same info, you could have a screen that cycles through various safety signages, depending on the context. Additionally, the screen could also display other helpful information, including:

• Worker updates
• Bite-sized training
• Motivational messages
• Updates to keep deskless workers in the loop
• Content that engages employees

Returning to health and safety signage, here are some reasons to use digital displays instead of static signs.

Real-time safety updates

Digital safety signs can provide real-time updates about active or potential hazards, emergency alerts, or safety procedures in environments where conditions can change.

For example, if a spill occurs in a specific area, safety personnel can immediately change a digital sign from “Hard Hats Required” to notifying workers to avoid that area and follow alternative routes.

In a non-industrial setting, real time safety signs can also inform people about local challenges such as weather alerts, access problems (such as faulty elevators) or local security issues.

That can save time and make the process of informing everyone more efficient.

Interactive safety briefings

Interactive digital signs can be used for training purposes, allowing employees to engage with safety protocols through videos, quizzes, and simulations. This interactive approach can offer many untapped opportunities, including making the learning process more engaging and ensuring better retention of safety procedures.

A great example is workers participating in simulated emergency drills or equipment handling procedures, which enhances their preparedness for real-life situations.

Displays can also share reminders periodically to reinforce the information they’ve received in the training process.

Read more: What is interactive digital signage?

Remote sign management

Using a digital signage solution can enable safety managers to update displays remotely, making it easy to keep information current across multiple sites. Safety signs will always be safety signs, but sometimes, the workplace may introduce processes, safety protocols, or PPEs, and these may need to be reflected in your signage.

This use of digital signage is particularly beneficial for large companies with numerous facilities, where manually maintaining printed safety signs would be impractical.

With digital signage, you can make central updates on new safety protocols and propagate them to all locations in a timely manner.

Multi-lingual signs

If you have a diverse staff, digital signs can be used to display messages in multiple languages, ensuring all employees understand the safety information. This could be just as helpful for employees whose first language isn’t English.

When it comes to life-saving safety information, it’s vital that everyone knows precisely what to do and what not to do, and digital signage could be helpful here.

Creating slides in specific languages to display on your safety signs ensures that everyone is aware of the potential hazards, even if they're not fluent in the language if your business. Simply set up your message, create a translated version (or versions), set the safety information to cycle through.

How to design workplace safety signs for digital displays

To create effective safety signs for digital screens, you need a blend of clarity, simplicity, and attention to detail. The signs must be prominent enough so that anyone can look at them and immediately understand the message and what’s required of them.

But they also need to avoid the problem of 'too much information'.

Here are some tips to help make sure you get it right:

Keep it simple

When it comes to health and safety information, the signs should be easy to read and understand at a glance. Flashy graphics with motion animation and colorful backgrounds have their place in creating digital signage content - but not with safety signs.

For best results, use:

• Large fonts
• High-contrast colors or simple colors
• Simple or familiar images/icons

You don't need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to signage. Keep your message succinct, and if you have multiple messages, don't worry about using more than one slide on your digital signage - that's one of the benefits if using digital.

It's also important to stick to health and safety color codes. According to the HSE network, here are the most important things to remember.

• Blue for mandatory signs
• Red for fire safety and prohibition signs
• Green for emergency escape and first aid safety signs
• Yellow for warning safety signs

Prioritize key information

With health and safety digital signage, it’s essential to get to the point quickly.

Use bold text or bright colors to highlight the most important information, such as the nature of the hazard or the required action.

Thanks to digital signage's dynamic nature, you can also add extra context to provide further information. But, the key details should always lead.

Use icons and graphics

Some health and safety signs don’t even need a lot of words; just the icons and graphics convey the information well enough. For Example, when most people see the below image, they immediately understand that there's a high chance of falling in the area.

Using icons and graphics like these can help improve the speed of information delivery and make your signs much more effective.

Ensure consistency

Consistency in style and font is critical when creating these safety signs. To avoid confusion, stick to the same font, colors (appropriate to the type of signs), and layouts. This will contribute to the overall readability.

Create effective digital safety signs with ScreenCloud

Implementing digital health and safety signage in the workplace is a step towards a safer, more informed work environment. Whether it's in a bustling factory, a busy logistics hub, or an office setting, digital displays can improve communication and ensure that safety information is always up-to-date and accessible for everyone.

With ScreenCloud, you can quickly create health and safety signs and roll them out to as many screens as you need. Our digital signage solution also allows you to implement multiple uses for your screen as needed without extra costs outside your plan.

Find out more by booking a demo or starting a 14-day free trial today.