If you own a business in any industry, especially in the industrial or construction sector, your top priority should be ensuring that the high-visibility workwear your employees are provided with is capable of keeping them visible in low-light conditions and appropriately protecting them from any risks they may encounter. Also, you need to see to it that the workwear is comfortable and that it complies with the relevant safety regulations. It’s essential you provide your employees with adequate workwear since it’s your responsibility as an employer to ensure their health, safety, and welfare. Keep on reading to find out exactly how important high-visibility clothing is for a safe working environment.
What is high-visibility clothing?
High-visibility clothing or hi-vis clothing is a kind of personal protection equipment (PPE). In a lot of countries, PPE is often required for numerous job roles, and employers are required to supply it. Wearing high-visibility gear at work guarantees that the wearer is visible in high-risk circumstances. One of the most popular types of high-visibility clothing is vests, but gloves, coveralls, coats, shirts, and even jackets and pants can keep your employees safe as well. To meet the necessary criteria for safety, this sort of workwear is made from luminous materials that are typically yellow or orange. Additionally, the clothing has reflective strips to improve visibility in low light.
It provides safety
As previously mentioned, PPE also includes hi-vis clothing, which has the primary function to make you safe from any possible threat that can occur at work. Numerous accidents, including deadly ones, can be prevented by wearing hi vis workwear. Health and safety at work greatly depend on staff members remaining visible on the job site. To avoid an accident, workers must be visible to one another when using machinery, on building sites, or around other large moving objects.
It properly fits your workers
You’re legally obligated to guarantee that the high-visibility clothing used by your workers is comfortable in accordance with the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations of 1992. Therefore, it must properly fit them and restrict their movement as little as possible. Your employees might have difficulties executing their job if their workwear is too small for them. That being said, clothing that is overly big could also lead them to injure themselves or get caught in equipment. One of the ways to reduce these risks is to take measures of your staff before you order their clothing.
It doesn’t limit movement
Your staff can also benefit from comfortable hi-vis workwear if the clothing has features like mobility panels, articulated knees, and elasticized cuffs and waists. Consider purchasing coveralls and jackets that include elasticated, dual-fix positing cuffs to properly fit around wrists. Another clothing item to think about buying is reinforced knee pads to contribute even more to the greatest amount of freedom of movement.
It gives protection from the weather
When picking high-visibility workwear, it’s also important to keep in mind that the clothing has to keep the person wearing it dry and at a healthy body temperature. It is particularly important in the winter because both the chilly weather and the germs that cause cold and flu which thrive in the chilly air weaken our immune systems. That’s why you need to give your staff the appropriate hi-vis jackets in order to stay warm. Consider buying those three-layered ones with fleece to ensure they’re also wind- and rain-resistant. Also, you may want to pay attention that it has heavy-duty zips that are strengthened with a press stud overlap to lessen the wind chill effect when working in colder weather.
It gives your employees a sense of identity
Your staff will stand out from the crowd if they wear high-visibility workwear. Also, they’ll be simple to recognize when the workwear is branded. On major construction sites, numerous working groups will be in charge of different tasks. It’s possible to distinguish between different labor groups and demonstrate professionalism by dressing in high-visibility clothing. When employees are dressed adequately for the task, it demonstrates that the business is competent, understands what is needed to execute the job, and knows how to keep employees safe.
All in all, keep in mind that employee safety in any work environment should always be your top priority. For greater safety and peace of mind, it always pays off to make the proper clothing investment in high-visibility workwear.
