What Are The Main Benefits Of High Visibility Clothing?

05 February 2021

They may not look stylish or even pretty to wear, but they can help you stay safe on the job by visiting visible.

High-visibility clothing or Hi-Vis as it’s most commonly abbreviated is a clothing piece that usually goes over the top of your regular clothes to help you be seen at night or when working in dangerous conditions.

In this article, we’ll look at some of the main benefits of Hi-Vis clothing and why it’s crucial to wear them.

Ensures Employees Are Easily Seen

The most obvious benefit of wearing Hi-Vis clothing is the bright colours and reflective strips on the garment.

This is useful for workers who work in difficult and dangerous environments.

The most obvious is roadside assistance workers who may be called out to recover a vehicle on the motorway, at night. Without Hi-Vis clothing, the worker would be in a dangerous place and may not be seen by cars travelling at least 60mph.

Hi-Vis clothing allows for these workers to be seen, even at night so that other drivers are aware and can proceed to pass with caution.

Safer Working Environment

When entering a construction site, employees must wear specific clothing due to safety regulations. This might include wearing a helmet, in some cases goggles and ear defenders and of course, Hi-Vis clothing.

This not only helps you to be seen but also creates an environment of safety. In turn, this may aid employees working on the site to know they’re safe and that all safety regulations are being met so that the employees can carry out the job at hand without any concerns.

Furthermore, if everyone else is wearing Hi-Vis clothing, helmets, goggles and ear defenders, and you’re not issued any of these but still expected to turn up and do the job, not only will you be extremely worried about your safety (and at this point, you should refuse to work as the employer is not meeting safety regulations) but a small consideration is that you may not feel part of the team.

A Matter of Life And Death

In some cases, wearing a Hi-Vis vest may help save your life.

Consider lone workers who may have a communication device but may have been knocked out due to injury on the job; they can easily be spotted by a rescue vehicle if they are wearing Hi-Vis clothing - saving their life.

This is just hypothetical, but already you can see how Hi-Vis clothing may indeed save lives just because of the bright colours and reflective strips on the item itself.