How I Use the Workplace Signage Template with Customers in Pilla
Signage is one of the controls that gets treated as a tick-box exercise more than almost anything else in health and safety. I've walked into warehouses where the mandatory hearing protection sign is still on the door two years after the noisy equipment was moved to a different building. I've seen wet floor signs left out permanently because nobody can be bothered to put them away, which means staff stop noticing them entirely. The sign is there, so the box is ticked. But nobody's actually reading it.
The gap between having signs and having signs that work is where most businesses fall down. The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996 set out clear requirements for what signs you need and where they go, but the regulations don't help you if nobody in your team knows the difference between a prohibition sign and a warning sign. That's what this article covers. I'll walk you through what the law requires, give you a ready-made template you can edit for your own operation, and explain the bits that actually matter when an HSE inspector walks through the door.
Key Takeaways
- What is workplace signage in health and safety? Workplace signage covers the legal duty to display safety signs that warn of hazards, prohibit dangerous actions, give mandatory instructions, and direct people to emergency exits and equipment. It's governed by the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996
- Why do you need a workplace signage policy? The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the Safety Signs and Signals Regulations require employers to provide and maintain safety signs where risk assessments identify the need. An HSE inspector will check that your signs are appropriate, visible, and understood by your team
- How do you set it up in Pilla? Use the knowledge hub template below, edit it to match your operation, and share it with your team through the app so everyone has access and you can track who's read it
- How do you automate the follow-up? Set up Poppi to chase staff who haven't acknowledged the policy and flag when it's due for review
Article Content
Understanding What's Required of You
Safety signs are a control measure. They sit alongside physical guards, safe systems of work, PPE, and training as one of the ways you manage risk in your workplace. The difference is that signs communicate information to people in real time, at the point where the hazard exists. A prohibition sign on a door tells someone not to enter before they've already walked in. A warning sign on a chemical store tells someone the hazard exists before they've opened the cabinet.
The legal framework is the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996, which sit underneath the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The regulations require employers to provide and maintain safety signs where risk assessments identify the need, and where the risk can't be adequately controlled by other means alone. Signs aren't a substitute for eliminating or reducing hazards. They're an additional layer of control.
There are five categories of safety sign, and your team needs to know all of them. Prohibition signs are red circles with a diagonal line, telling people what they must not do. Warning signs are yellow triangles alerting people to hazards. Mandatory signs are blue circles telling people what they must do. Emergency information signs are green rectangles directing people to exits, first aid, and safety equipment. Fire equipment signs are red rectangles showing where fire-fighting equipment is located.
An HSE inspector will check three things when it comes to signage. First, whether your risk assessments have identified where signs are needed. Second, whether the right signs are actually displayed, visible, and in good condition. Third, whether your staff understand what the signs mean. I've been on site visits where businesses had all the right signs but nobody on the floor could explain the difference between a warning and a mandatory instruction. That's a training failure, not a signage one, and it still gets picked up.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 tie into this through the requirement to carry out suitable and sufficient risk assessments. Signage needs should come out of those assessments, not from guesswork or copying what the business next door has done. If your risk assessment says you need a prohibition sign on the plant room door, you need one. If it doesn't mention signage at all, that's a gap in your assessment, not evidence that you don't need any signs.
Setting It Up as a Knowledge Hub Entry
I've built a workplace signage template in Pilla covering your legal duty to display signs, workplace assessment, competent person advice, sign maintenance, compliance monitoring, and training requirements. It gives you a structured starting point, but you should edit it to reflect your own site.
In the knowledge hub, create a new entry and tag it with "Health and Safety System". Use the same tag across all of your health and safety policies so they are grouped together and Poppi can track them as a set. Assign the entry to all teams so that everyone in the business can access it.
The template is designed to be edited, not just filed. Read through every section. Where it says "Company Name", replace it with your business name. Where it refers to responsible persons assessing the workplace, name the actual people who carry out that assessment in your operation. The more specific you make it, the more useful it is when an HSE inspector asks to see your arrangements.
37. Workplace Signage
Where it has been identified through fire risk assessment food safety compliance or general risk assessments, Company Name will fulfill our legal duty to display safety signs, to warn, prohibit, or instruct our employees' visitors or clientele. Displaying safety signs allows us to manage safety, reduce risk or advertise safety protocols.
Company Name will follow these safety arrangements to ensure the displaying of safety signage in our venue is up to the standard required.
Responsible Persons to assess the workplace to identify where Company Name need to display safety signage.
Act on the advice of visiting competent persons, Environmental Health Officers and the Fire & Rescue Service if they identify areas where the display of safety signage can be improved.
Provide resources for the purchase and installation of signs in the workplace.
Ensure that signage purchased is sufficient for its purpose and all signage once displayed is maintained and checked regularly.
Monitor the workplace to ensure that workplace signs are adhered to.
Provide and record training when it is identified, as being necessary.
This is a preview of the template. In Pilla, you can edit this to match your business.
What I'd want to see when reviewing this:
The assessment section is the foundation. I'd want to see that your responsible persons have actually walked the site and identified where signs are needed, not just assumed the existing signs are correct. The assessment should cover all areas: not just the main workspace, but storage rooms, external areas, car parks, roof access points, plant rooms, and anywhere else people go. I've reviewed sites where the main floor was well-signed but the loading bay had nothing, and that's where the forklift operates.
The section on acting on competent person advice matters more than most businesses realise. When an HSE inspector, fire officer, or external consultant tells you to improve your signage, that recommendation needs to be recorded and acted on. I'd want to see a clear process for capturing those recommendations and tracking them through to completion. The worst outcome is the same deficiency being noted on two consecutive visits.
Common mistakes I see:
Signs that are there but can't be seen. I've lost count of the number of times I've found mandatory PPE signs obscured by shelving, pallets stacked in front of fire exit signs, or warning signs mounted so high that nobody reads them. A sign that isn't visible isn't doing its job. Check your signs from the position where people actually approach them, not from directly underneath.
No maintenance or inspection routine. Signs fade, crack, get covered in dust, or fall off walls. Most businesses put signs up and forget about them. The regulations require that signs are maintained. That means someone needs to check them on a regular cycle, the same as you'd check fire extinguishers or first aid kits.
Training that covers the policy but not the actual signs. Your team needs to know what the specific signs in your workplace mean and where they are, not just the theory of sign categories. Induction training should include a walkround showing new starters the signs they'll encounter. I've seen businesses hand someone a policy document about signage types and call it training. That doesn't cut it.
Automate the Follow-Up with Poppi
Writing the policy is one thing. Making sure your team has actually read it is another. Poppi can handle the chasing so you don't have to.
If you mark the knowledge hub entry as mandatory, Poppi will track who's read it and who hasn't. You can set up automations to chase staff who are behind, notify managers when someone completes the policy, and get a regular report showing where the gaps are.
Here are three automations I'd set up for any knowledge hub policy:
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Overdue training reminders
Automatically chase team members who have mandatory policies they haven't read yet. Poppi sends the reminder so you don't have to.
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Video completion alerts
Get notified when a team member finishes reading or watching a policy, so you can track progress without chasing.
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.
Training gap analysis
Get a regular AI report showing which team members are behind on mandatory policies and where the gaps are across your team.
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.