Preventing Slips, Trips, And Falls In Your Workplace

 When starting your own business, regardless of what kind, it’s important to know your responsibilities as a business owner. Chief among them is your responsibility to provide a safe and healthy place for your employees to work. There are many different ways you can safeguard your team, but it’s a good idea to start with the most common cause of injury: slips, trips, and falls. Here, we’re going to look at a host of ways you can reduce their likelihood in your own business.

Image Source - CC0 License

Keep the floors clean and dry

Regularly clean and dry floors to remove spills, debris, and other hazards that can cause slips. Implement a schedule for routine cleaning throughout the workday, paying particular attention to high-traffic areas and spill-prone zones. Use signage to alert employees to wet floors and promptly address any spills or leaks to prevent accidents. If you need to hire a cleaning company to help you manage the responsibility, then you should.

Ensure good visibility throughout the space

Poor visibility can cause people to fail to find safe footing on the floor, and can also make them a lot more likely to miss clutter and obstacles in their way that can end up tripping them up. Be sure to install bright and reliable lighting fixtures in spaces that employees commonly walk through, and replace any burnt-out bulbs as soon as you notice them.

Implement safety railings

A lot of falls can happen from heights, as well as downstairs, which should be more properly protected. Having no railings, or short railings, can lead to a real risk of falling from height, which is several times more dangerous than simply tripping. Using commercial railings can ensure that you have the right safeguards in place to prevent this from happening as best as possible. Be sure to highlight and mark any changes in height so people are warier around them, too.

Ensure that your team has the right footwear

Encourage employees to wear appropriate footwear with slip-resistant soles and adequate support. Provide guidance on selecting footwear suitable for the specific hazards present in the workplace, such as oil-resistant soles for areas prone to spills. Regularly inspect employees' footwear for signs of wear and tear and encourage prompt replacement when necessary. This is especially important for any outdoor workspaces, where you can’t always control the kind of flooring your team is going to be on.

Use anti-slip flooring materials and mats

If your workplace is likely to become slippery, whether due to high levels of traffic or due to the presence of moisture or materials that can spill onto the floor, you need to mitigate those risks. You can use anti-slip flooring to make sure that your employee’s feet can always maintain their grip, as well as non-slip mats in specific areas that are likely to become a tripping hazard.

You can’t foresee every accident and incident that might occur in your business. However, with the tips above, you can at least make them a lot less likely to happen as often as they would, otherwise.