All employees need to understand the meaning of safety signs in the workplace. If they remain clueless about what the text or the graphics on the safety sign conveys, they will not help you realise your goal of maintaining a hazard-free facility. So as an employer, you have to provide information to your personnel about the meaning and requirements of all the safety signs in the workplace. This should, all the more, be carried out when only plain symbols and technical terms are used on the signage.
There are many ways that you can adopt when orientating your employees about the meaning behind the graphics and text printed on safety signs in the workplace. First of all, you can conduct a comprehensive occupational health and safety training that your employees should participate in. During the seminar, you can ask OHS officers and experts to discuss potential workplace dangers and to provide corresponding safety measures to eliminate the hazards. On top of that, you should ask the safety team to familiarise the participants with the different type of safety signs in the workplace and when and how they are used. Divide the orientation in short yet engaging segments so as not to bore the attendees. If you can, prepare games and other activities that will harness the personnel's knowledge and understanding of signage.
Educating your workforce about safety signs in the workplace will help you cultivate a hazard-free and accident-free environment. So every once in a while, gather your employees and have some toolbox talks focussing on safety signs and their meanings.
