As communication devices, workplace safety posters don’t always fulfill their function. Many people don’t want to spend time reading them, for example, and they’re often placed—and easily overlooked—on already-cluttered bulletin boards. When they don’t succeed in communicating their information to people who need to know it, they become a waste of money and resources. By following a few best practices, though, a company can make safety posters effective tools for emphasizing the main points of its workplace safety program.
Use them as supplements
The main function of the safety poster is to reinforce safety training. When safety posters are used in meetings, they should be displayed in plain sight and referenced throughout the meeting. When employees see a poster later, it should remind them about something they learned in a safety meeting or a hazard they were told to avoid. Posters should be used only to echo what’s already been taught—not to teach new things.
Consider their placement and design
As realtors say, “It’s all about location, location, location.” These posters should be placed in high-traffic areas where there’s a good chance they’ll be read. For example, the production line, where employees aren’t allowed to stop work and where standing around can pose a bevy of safety risks all on its own, isn’t a great place to hang a poster. Breakrooms, high-traffic hallways, and the room with the time clock are all ideal for poster placement because they’re places where employees can pause to read them without creating any new safety hazards or disrupting anyone’s workflow. Bathrooms are another good possibility, because in those locations people are less likely to be distracted by other signs or other people.
Rotate them throughout the workplace
When a poster stays in one spot for an extended period of time, it fades into the background, and employees simply stop noticing it. Rotating safety posters through different locations ensures that the messaging reaches new eyes periodically. Reminders at monthly safety meetings can extend the “life cycle” of those posters, but it’s always best to err on the side of caution: if it seems at all possible that a poster has been in a spot for too long, it’s probably time to move it.
Limit their scope
The acronym K.I.S.S (“Keep It Simple, Stupid”) offers useful guidance for designing safety posters. Each poster should present only one message, because employees are more likely to commit one idea to memory than to retain multiple messages. Keeping the presentation itself simple and concise, too, is also a good practice, because overloading a safety poster with convoluted wording and busy imagery can obfuscate its message.
Make them stand out
Although it’s important to keep things simple, that doesn’t mean posters can’t be entertaining or eye-catching. After all, it’s a lot easier to convey a safety message to someone if they notice it. For example, incorporating relevant Internet memes into a poster can attract employees’ attention, make them feel more invested in the message, and prevent posters from going “stale.” Another option to consider is to hang posters upside down. After an initial double-take to figure out what’s going on, employees will be more likely to read (and remember) the messaging.
Get employees involved
Employees may connect more with the posters if their participation is solicited and encouraged. Asking employees to make suggestions for safety posters (or even to design posters themselves) gets them involved in the process and makes it more likely that they will retain the information. Sometimes the best learning process is the hands-on approach.
Workplace safety posters can be effective tools as long as companies don’t succumb to common pitfalls when putting them to use. Keep them simple, rotate them when necessary, encourage team members to be active participants, and place them where they’ll be seen. These strategies can ensure that the message is received—and remembered—by those who need to hear it.