Isaac Newton was a physicist who thought that, by staring up at the sun, he could better understand how the universe worked. Fortunately, he was not hired by any organisation to undertake such damaging research: this sun-staring routine was his decision entirely. However, research suggests that employers and organisations are regularly subjecting their employees to as much daily eyestrain as poor old Newton.
Although you’ll hear people grumble about health and safety strictures, there are many really serious hazards in the world that it pays to be aware of. Did you know farming is the UK’s most dangerous industry? Using the right farm signs is necessary to meet legal requirements and protect the landowner from legal exposure if someone is injured on their property, so it’s vital to display farm signs properly.
Faced with the threat of criminal activity such as burglary and vandalism, increasing numbers of property owners and businesses are installing CCTV systems to provide a constant watchful eye over their homes or premises. CCTV can act as a deterrent, warning would-be criminals that their actions will be monitored and recorded, and can provide the police with vital evidence to assist in the arrest and prosecution of offenders. However, it is worth knowing that anyone who installs CCTV may have legal responsibilities to display warning signs that are easily seen.
Many people think that health and safety is just red tape put in place to stop businesses being productive and making money – but this is the opposite of the truth. Affixing health and safety signs around your workplace can have a significant and positive impact on the productivity of your employees, and therefore your business as a whole. Here are three reasons as to how safety signs can help boost productivity:
Safety signs play an important role in protecting a business’s employees and customers. But for those of us operating within an environment around water, the use of health and safety signs couldn’t be more important. Yet astonishingly, many businesses still choose to operate without these mandatory signs; given the risks involved with water, this could have serious ramifications for any business!
Since July 2007, smoking has been prohibited in public areas and the regulations have required businesses to implement very specific signage in order to comply with the new laws. Failure to display the correct signage can result in a maximum fine of £1000, so it’s crucial that you learn about the important regulations.
Highly visible ‘Caution: Wet Floor’ signs are frequently seen in public areas such as shops, schools and local authority buildings, even during the daytime when customer footfall is high. In an ideal world, businesses would delay cleaning until after working hours in order to ensure that members of the public are not required to walk over potentially slippery floors but this is not always possible.
Has this ever happened to you? You are driving to a place you have never visited before, and are following the road signs. At the first roundabout, your destination is clearly signed, yet when you reach the next, it appears to have been removed from the face of the earth. Guesswork driving isn’t the most enjoyable game to play!
If you’re in the retail business, you probably already appreciate the importance of good signage in capturing customers’ attention and drawing it to particular merchandise or offers, and of clearly labelling goods and prices.
Here are some top tips for making the most of signs in your retail premises:
People are probably in a rush in your store – so understand that. With everything from Vine and YouTube videos to Tweets shrinking, and attention spans decreasing rapidly, there’s no time for densely worded signage.
As a business, your image and branding need to say everything about you that a customer might want to know. What you sell, how you go about your business and the fact that you are trustworthy are all major elements of your corporate identity that your image and branding need to convey.
They draw the eye in a way that text sometimes doesn’t. We humans are visual animals and our eyes pick up on anything that looks interesting or unusual. In other words, adding an image to a sign makes it more likely that the sign will be noticed in the first place. Remember we all adhere to warning signs when driving, and signs that give us direction to ensure we remain within the law, a no smoking sign for example. Most of these have no words at all.
If you type ‘mistranslated signs’ into your search engine, you will discover a wealth of – often amusing – examples of safety signs, street signs and other types of signage from around the world that have mistranslated information. Things like instructions and warnings have been rendered into English so poorly that their original meaning is lost.
