The Board of Certified Safety Professionals recently announced that the top ten avoidable OSHA violations in 2023 approached almost 30,000 incidents. Poor hazard communication made up over 3,000 of these, despite being an avoidable issue due to the easy availability of signs, labels, and other communication methods. So, do your workplace safety signs meet your business's unique demands, or are you potentially at fault if a sudden inspection occurs?

​Below, we explain how custom safety signs can offer a tailored solution for your business to remain compliant with safety signage regulations without worrying about your workplace's specific requirements. Learn the importance of safety signs and why signage can help you ensure compliance, even if your industry has specific limitations on the shape, size, or material you can use.

Custom workplace signs are often essential in industries or businesses with bespoke hazards not covered by standard signage. Specific hazards may demand that you develop custom solutions to depict the risks present accurately. Succeeding at this will ensure improved workplace safety compliance while protecting your employees.

Many individual industries may demand tailored safety signs, where generic signage will not suffice.

​For example, in a manufacturing plant that uses specialized machinery, a custom sign can offer:

In the chemical industry, signs may instead need to use the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). These universal symbols relate to the handling and transferring of chemicals, and as such, you may need custom signs or labels detailing the specific chemicals you are working with.

​By addressing unique hazards and clearly stating that they are related to a specific location, businesses can do more than reduce liability and increase safety. They can also foster a culture of safety awareness based on camaraderie related to that location.

If you have recently acquired new equipment or if it is of a bespoke design for your business, custom signs that detail specific operational risks in that device are likely to be required. Custom signs can ensure that even non-standard or new equipment has clear and straightforward safety information that is obviously visible.

Working with Durable Safety Signs, design clear instructions that can guide employees who are new to using any equipment. You can then ensure that you reduce the risk of human error, promoting a safer work environment for all your employees.

​The equipment manufacturer may often have advice or even specific signs they recommend you use. Durable Safety Signs can print or replicate these using your company's safety sign guidelines. This way, you can display the relevant hazard information related to the machine and ensure it does not draw the eye like another company's imagery might.

Your facility is likely to have a unique layout, either due to the shape of the building or the needs of your internal processes. As such, no safety protocol signs are likely to be the same. You may need custom signs related to the following:

A business such as Durable Safety Signs can take data such as a building layout diagram and help you incorporate it into your signage. The signs you use will then be much more explicit about where employees should go to perform specific tasks. They can direct employees to safer pathways, emergency exits, or other important locations.

If you have a multilingual workforce or facilities close to specific borders, custom signs may reflect the need to communicate processes to a significant percentage of your workforce. As such, in addition to multiple text phrases, Durable Safety Signs can incorporate universally recognized symbols in their sign design to help improve comprehension.

​Using symbols can also boost compliance in many cases due to OSHA demands for specific symbology on different signs. So, combining symbols with text for bilingual or multilingual workforces can enhance the effectiveness of any safety communication.

One of the most-overlooked custom safety sign benefits is their ability to respond to recurring employee errors. While training is valuable, having clearer or more specific safety signs can help further, especially with OSHA 1910.145 demanding precision in what you communicate.

Repeated errors can lead to serious risks in high-risk environments like manufacturing or chemical plants. As such, one-size-fits-all business safety signage may not be sufficient to provide clear and direct messaging that matches your needs.

​Work with Durable Safety Signs to ensure you develop more direct messaging. We can tailor it to prevent the specific mistakes your workers might keep making, ensuring better compliance and reducing the potential for costly or dangerous errors.

Customized signage can be the perfect choice to address short-term hazards. For example, construction or maintenance work may occur despite your business not being a construction business. Having accurate signs for these events will ensure that you keep your employees safe during and after any work that falls outside their regular processes.

In such a situation, portable or digital signs allow for more flexible options. They can be switched out or moved based on the evolving nature of the hazard.

Custom workplace safety signs can help your business meet OSHA compliance in a way best suited to your unique situation or industry. When well-designed, these signs can boost safety and reduce accidents, so they must match your company's and OSHA's strict requirements no matter what you are trying to communicate.

Durable Safety Signs has a long legacy of working with businesses like yours to design and produce custom signage that enhances workplace safety. Get in touch today to learn how we can collaborate with you to ensure your business meets the safety and compliance standards your employees deserve.