Gearing up for peak season means recruiting lifeguards, planning programs and ensuring pool compliance. One aspect of pool safety that doesn’t need to be addressed every year but should be checked for overall effectiveness is signage. You probably have some site-specific signs regarding showering before entering the pool, not running around the pool others. Additionally, you have to ensure that regulated signs are present.
Address signage for safety
Schedule some time in your peak season preparation to look at the signage in your facility. You may find that some are worn out and aren’t very readable. You might realize that site-specific signs aren’t optimally placed or that a certain area has too many signs and can be overwhelming for swimmers.
Ensure that swimmers are aware of safety practices at your pool by following these steps on signage checking.
1. Learn about the laws: Make sure your pool is following regulations by checking on local laws. The National Swimming Pool Foundation provides links to a number of local pool rules. Note the ones about signage and share the documents with other staff members who are going to check other areas of the pool for overall safety.
2. Create a list: Write down your personal concerns and notes below the ones on local regulations. Speak to other staff members about ideas on signage before doing a walk-through of the facility.
3. Check each area for compliance: Ensure that regulated signs are up, readable and placed correctly. This includes wall-mounted signs and ones that are painted on the ground noting the water depth.
4. Take a look at site-specific signs: Don’t check on site-specific signs with a managerial mindset. Instead, walk into the facility as if you were a visitor. This will give you a better perspective of what swimmers see when they come to the pool. Perhaps the bathroom needs more signs and the showers need fewer signs.
5. Replace signage as necessary: Regulated signs that are no longer readable should be replaced immediately. If your facility-designed signage has seen better days, this may be the perfect opportunity to explore new colors or borders that’ll make them stand out more.
Signs won’t have to be changed every year, but taking a look at them each year can ensure that they’re always up to date.