Contact Safety Aide for any signage

According to the Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations of 1996, safety signs cannot take the place of other risk-reduction strategies. They must notify staff members of any substantial dangers that still exist or provide instructions on the protective actions they should take.

Tip: Avoid overusing signs as they begin to lose their usefulness. In

Tip: You may need to provide other communication channels for visually challenged staff members, including audible directions/instructions during a fire evacuation.

Additional signs

The following are two additional types of signage to understand:

● Fire signage – a red square with a white symbol, or white symbol with text in the middle, eg ‘Call Points’;

● Global harmonised system – a red diamond with black symbols on a white backdrop to indicate a chemical’s classification (toxic, corrosive, etc).

Good practice

Make sure all signs are clear and not faded and replace any signs that are defective right away. Ensure your workforce understands what they mean. Even though most safety signs are self-explanatory, new, young, or inexperienced staff may not be familiar with them. Any sign’s meaning must be made clear, and workers must be made aware of the repercussions of disobeying the warning or instruction provided by the sign.

MARY PERRY Owner ME Marketing and Events

A GREAT WAY to position yourself as a specialist in your industry is by posting a frequent blog (written) or even a vlog (video) if you fancy it. Most websites have the option to include a blog, maybe you already have a section on your website, and you haven’t utilised it yet.

Now is the time, a new year, a new platform to share with your customers. You may be wondering how you can start? Commit to an achievable timetable, whether it is once a week, every 2 weeks or once a month, anything longer than this won’t have the same effect. Then brainstorm a list of topics you want to cover, for example, product walk throughs, in-depth reviews of certain machine features, a write-up from a recent factory trip or a competitive comparison. Topics like these will showcase to your customers that you are more of a specialist when it comes to the machines you sell and the market, and that in turn builds trust. When target customers trust you, they are more likely to buy from you. Writing a blog/ vlog can be a relationship building exer- cise and a campaign to sell machinery.

Once you have started posting your blog/vlog frequently, make sure you repurpose it! After all, you have spent the time writing or recording the content. The beauty of a blog/vlog is that the content can be used on your social media, in print material and in your email marketing, it can also positively affect your SEO ranking.

If you are unsure where to start or you would like some help getting a list of relevant topics together, then chat with me and we can get the ball rolling!