A quick reference to what each type of safety sign means by shape and colour, when signs are needed and who maintains them.
This guidance document is supplied in fully editable MS Word format and can be easily customised and edited. The document uses pre-defined style formatting throughout, with all text in Calibri font for improved readability.
The following document labelling is included in the footer:
- Guidance number and title
- Information-classification
- Version
- Page number / total pages
alphaZ documents - beautifully designed, tried and tested guidance documents. No junk, jargon or unnecessary content. Simple and usable guidance documents
developed over 25 years through practical use in the real world.
Further guidance on safety signs:
To get access to these files please click on Add to Cart to purchase for immediate download. If you have an alphaZ Subscription just click on Download Files to view all the files available to download. The training talk is also included in the ISO 45001 Toolkit and the integrated toolkits that include it.
If you'd like hands-on help identifying where your risk assessments call for safety signs, our remote support services provide direct expert input from our team, by the day, by project, or on an ongoing basis.
Know Your Safety Signs Guidance
A general guidance document on safety signs, for all employees. It explains when the company must provide safety signs, its duties to maintain and explain them, the different forms a safety sign can take, and what prohibition, warning, mandatory, emergency escape, first aid and fire equipment signs mean.
Topics Covered
- When signs are needed - signs where a significant risk cannot be avoided or controlled another way, and when signs are not needed
- Company duties - using road traffic signs to control workplace traffic, maintaining signs, and explaining unfamiliar signs to employees
- Signboards and other signs - how a signboard combines shape, colour and a symbol, often with supporting text such as Fire exit
- Prohibition, warning and mandatory signs - red circles with a diagonal bar, yellow triangles and blue circles, and what each one tells you
- Emergency and fire equipment signs - green escape and first aid signs, and red signs that show where firefighting equipment and alarm call points are
Who Is It For?
All employees, including anyone who meets a sign they do not recognise, and the managers responsible for providing and maintaining signs.
Included in the ISO 45001 Toolkit
This guidance is supplied with the TT-7-11 Know Your Safety Signs training talk, which is part of the ISO 45001 Toolkit and the integrated toolkits that include it.
Using the Guidance
Issue it at induction and keep it as a quick reference to what each type of sign means. Record who has received it, for example on the training matrix.
What Shape and Colour Mean
A simple table sets out the common format. A red circle with a diagonal bar means do not do this, a yellow triangle with a black border means watch out for this, and a blue circle with a white symbol means you must do this. Green with white detail is safety information about exits, first aid or rescue, and red with white detail marks fire equipment.
Adapting the Guidance
Edit the guidance to match your own arrangements - the signs used on your premises, any road traffic signs that control vehicles on site, and who maintains signs and explains them to employees.
Related Documents
Other documents that work alongside this guidance:
Signs That Are Not Signboards
A health and safety sign is not only a signboard. The guidance explains that information or instructions about health and safety can also be given by a colour, an illuminated sign, a sound, spoken words or a hand signal.
Would you rather we prepared it for you?
A day of remote support can take the risk assessments you already have, move them into one consistent format with the same scoring throughout, and build your hazard register from them, so the hazards this guidance covers are backed by a current assessment.
Risk Assessment Reformatting and Hazard Register