Workplace Safety Signs: Explaining Them to Staff and Keeping Them Useful

A workplace safety sign has a job to do: communicate a particular warning, instruction or location. Installing it is not the end of that job. Employees need to understand what it means, and it must remain visible and suitable for the place where it is used.

This guide is for employers and managers organising explanations, checks and replacements for signs already identified through their workplace’s safety arrangements. It is not a safety assessment or a promise that a particular sign will make a workplace compliant.

Begin with the confirmed requirement

Before discussing artwork or replacement, establish which safety message is required and who has confirmed it. Do not select a sign solely because another workplace has one.

Regulation 160 connects the provision of signs with hazards that cannot be avoided or adequately reduced through other measures. It also requires consideration of the risk assessment and safety statement.

The employer and the supplier have different jobs. The employer or competent safety adviser confirms what is needed. The supplier can then discuss making the specified sign.

For an introduction to the principal categories, read our guide to workplace safety signs in Ireland.

Explain the sign and the action together

A useful explanation answers three questions: what does this sign mean, where does it apply, and what must the person do?

Regulation 161 requires employers to provide information and suitable instruction about workplace safety signs, including their meanings and the behaviour required.

As a practical approach, explain the actual signs employees will encounter rather than relying only on a generic chart. Connect each message with the relevant workplace procedure. Make clear who employees should ask if the sign or instruction is unclear.

A question such as “What should you do when you see this?” can help reveal a misunderstanding. This is a suggested communication check, not a prescribed legal test or a substitute for suitable instruction.

A poster, briefing or digital resource can support the explanation. It does not remove the need to give employees appropriate information about their own workplace.

Keep the pictogram and any explanation clear

The HSA’s safety-sign guide explains the distinction between a safety signboard and supplementary wording. When explanatory text is needed, a supplementary signboard can carry it without undermining the safety message.

The HSA guide says each safety signboard and any associated supplementary signboard should convey one safety message. If two confirmed messages are required, use two separate signboards; those separate signboards, with supplementary signboards where necessary, may be arranged on one carrier. Do not merge pictograms into a new symbol or use supplementary wording to introduce a second safety message.

For a replacement or combined board, therefore, provide the confirmed pictograms and the exact supplementary wording. Avoid asking a designer to reinterpret a safety symbol as a logo or decorative graphic.

Company identification and general notices should not obscure the required message. If the layout raises doubt, return it to the responsible person for confirmation before production.

Check the sign where people actually see it

A layout can look clear on a screen and still be difficult to use in its intended position. Review it from the approach people take, at the relevant viewing distance and under the lighting conditions that matter.

Schedule 9 addresses positioning, visibility, lighting and factors that can reduce signs’ effectiveness. It also requires suitable maintenance and replacement where necessary.

Walk through the space and look for problems. Do stored items hide the message? Does an open door cover it? Do nearby notices confuse it? Has the layout changed? These checks can identify questions that need resolving.

The answer is not automatically to add more signs. Refer uncertainties about number, location and suitability to the employer or competent adviser. A sign supplier should not be asked to infer a safety plan from a photograph alone.

Agree how defects will be reported

A damaged or obscured sign is easier to address when people know how to report it. As a practical management step, identify a contact and explain what information they need.

A useful report includes the location, what is wrong and a clear photograph where appropriate. The person responsible can then consider the immediate issue and whether replacement, repositioning or another action is needed.

Do not assume that a faded sign should simply be copied. First confirm that its message and location remain correct.

Checks should fit the workplace’s arrangements and conditions. This article does not prescribe one inspection frequency for every premises or site.

Prepare a replacement request that avoids guesswork

Once replacement requirements are confirmed, give the supplier enough information to discuss the job accurately:

• the approved signboard or pictogram and exact supplementary wording;
• quantity and required dimensions;
• intended location, viewing distance and indoor or outdoor use;
• material and fixing requirements, where specified;
• the required date and collection or delivery location;
• any existing artwork, schedule or clear reference photograph.

Use photographs as references, not as proof that an existing sign meets the current requirement. Check wording, arrows, layout and quantities before approving artwork.

Time for Designs can discuss production details for suitable construction and site safety signs from confirmed requirements. We do not carry out workplace or construction-site safety assessments.

Useful questions

Does buying a sign establish legal compliance?

No. The sign must fit the actual requirement, and provision of signs is only one part of the employer’s workplace safety responsibilities. Refer risk and compliance decisions to the responsible employer or competent adviser.

Can more than one safety message be shown on one carrier?

Yes, if each message is shown on its own confirmed safety signboard, with its own supplementary signboard where necessary. The separate signboards may share one carrier. Do not combine pictograms into one invented symbol or use one signboard-plus-supplementary text to convey multiple messages.

Can we send a photograph of an existing sign?

Yes, as a reference for the production enquiry. The final requirement, wording, dimensions, material and fixing still need confirmation.

Use the sources with their dates attached

The sources linked here include HSA guidance and the Law Reform Commission’s consolidated legislation. Check their dates and amendment information when making a decision. The consolidated HTML examined for this guide was labelled updated to 24 May 2023; this article does not claim that a full legal update through October 2026 has been completed.

HSA guidance is explanatory. Neither it nor this article replaces the legislation or advice about the particular workplace.

Need a confirmed sign produced or replaced?

Call 062 61524, WhatsApp Time for Designs, or visit 98 Friar Street, Cashel. Bring the confirmed sign list, quantities, location details and required date. We can discuss the practical production specification before preparing a quotation.