While you might think that safety in the workplace isn't always increasing, it often does so in fits and starts. OSHA Outreach Courses, for example, recently reported that the warehouse and storage industry saw a 23% rise in fatal injuries in 2021 alone. Safety and compliance means ensuring people have access to the best information at all times and giving people the tools they need to maintain safety, such as by using safety signs in the workplace.

​Below, we offer some clear examples of how to help you take precise and actionable steps to tackle many of the most common mistakes related to:

So, follow these recommendations to give you the best chance of creating a safe workplace and positive culture for your workforce moving forward.

Using an overcrowded safety sign can confuse employees by mixing disparate messages. Even if each single message is valid, the combination can reduce their individual effectiveness during emergencies.

Complex designs that use too many icons or colors can confuse workers, causing them to misinterpret safety instructions or reducing their reaction time during accidents as people struggle to understand what they should do.

​OSHA guidelines clearly emphasize clear and simple pictograms or words in signage, offering examples of many potential hazards. They also highlight the importance of safety signs in improving workplace safety and making it easier to identify hazards quickly. As such, they can help you understand how a complex sign can cause a slowdown at every step.

Follow the example of OSHA by not combining too many icons or colors to avoid elevating the potential risk in your workplace. Use minimalistic designs that leverage bold and legible fonts in contrasting colors. You will then avoid elevating the potential risk of having a difficult-to-read sign and make it easier to comprehend in smoke or darkness.

​As for specific colors, it is a good idea to follow the advice of OSHA or ANSI, who have created standards that do not allow ambiguity. Their clear signage instructions highlight how straightforward layouts that direct attention to the most important message can help improve workplace safety.

While you may want to create signage that matches your business's unique branding, there is always the chance that this will impede sign clarity. Alternatively, it could cause the sign to fall outside of OSHA requirements.

​Non-compliance in this fashion can result in major fines. OSHA reports that the highest examples of willful regulatory flagrancy can trigger fines reaching as high as $165,514 per violation, which could devastate a smaller business and its reputation. These regulations touch on areas including sign:

As such, ensure that you follow guidelines such as OSHA Standard 1910.145. Complying with this regulation protects workers from workplace hazards and helps your business avoid significant fines.

Making the most effective safety signage means using durable material in your sign-creation efforts so that they remain compliant in the long term.

While the OSHA does not specify specific materials, should a sign start to decay, it will quickly become non-compliant, so you should ensure you maintain your signs over time instead of thinking you are finished once you have placed up your first warning.

​Some of the issues the material will need to stand up against include:

So, find suppliers who can deliver certified signs that will not be adversely affected by external factors.

Use signs in sensible locations to ensure they are neither overlooked nor obstructed by equipment or architecture. Similarly, ensure that heavy foot traffic does not prevent people from seeing the sign, such as if an area is filled with other workers.

Failing to perform this step reduces the chances of people realizing the sign exists during critical moments. As such, you potentially put people or equipment in danger of harm.

​At the same time, one of the more common safety sign mistakes companies make is placing it somewhere it is at risk of receiving damage, either accidentally or via vandalism, which can cause it to stop being effective when needed.

Run a risk assessment for each sign placement to check that no other factors could reduce your workplace safety compliance due to a lack of warning visibility. Consider employee flow, oversight, and the demographics of your worker population to determine if the sign may come to harm and move it if so.

​You could even consider testing signs to see if people notice them before you permanently install them. You can then move them to more effective locations a lot easier.

Thinking that all safety signs will be automatically understandable is a mistake. Employees unfamiliar with safety sign design may not always follow your safety steps accurately or question the importance of safety signs, putting them and others in danger.

​Analyst TapRooT even reported last year that failure to train employees in safety has led to some of the costliest fines in 2024, so you do not want to replicate their mistakes.

As such, training sessions on correctly interpreting signs ensure your team is always prepared for anything that might occur. However, OSHA provides training resources you can use and directions to education centers should you need further assistance in ensuring workplace safety compliance.

​When safety audits occur, you can even use these to refocus your training. Learn from the feedback to improve the sign training content by identifying gaps in understanding and helping people know what to do to remain safe moving forward.

The above advice should ensure that any safety signs in the workplace are robust and well-designed, boosting their clarity to your workers. Alongside this, training sessions and refreshers mean that every staff member should clearly understand each one.

​For more guidance and to source the best signs available, contact Durable Safety Signs. We offer OSHA-compliant products that can protect your facility long into the future. Upgrade your danger communication efforts today.