Winter safety tips

With winter fast approaching its essential that we look at some of the potential safety risks that we can expect to face in this particularly chilly season. It is easy to get caught out by some of the impending negative elements that come with winter.

Lighting

As we know, in winter the days are shorter and the nights are longer. As darkness closes in much quicker, often fairly early in the working day, it is imperative that lighting is up to scratch and can be relied upon.

This accounts for both external lighting, as well as internal lighting. It is your responsibility as the person looking after the health and safety of both employees and visitors to your workplace. Part of this is ensuring that lighting is fully operational when required for people both exiting the premises and also when within the building.

Working shift policy and procedures

Something we had to look at ourselves, was the policy of shifts within the company. For example, If you are perhaps a smaller company it's crucial that you are mindful of the people that are working late. Reviewing of policies is vital, with a view to ensuring (if possible) that no workers are left working late and leaving the office late by themselves.

Office conditions

With working conditions in your commercial premises, anything that compromises employee comfort and well being is unacceptable. Especially in winter conditions, heating is going to be a challenge that is faced every year. Therefore it is important that heating systems are competent and ready for use, to enable this you should be looking at having your systems professionally looked at ahead of time, earlier in the year.

Ensuring safe walkways

As the seasons change and it begins to get more wet, more cold, and eventually more icy and snowy, it is key that as an employer or person responsible, you see to it that steps are taken to promote a safe entry and exit of the workplace. Wet slippery leaves can be a real slip hazard, therefore routine removal of leaves from areas where people will be walking regularly will help reduce the chance of hazard. An even bigger hazard is ice, it's imperative that steps are taken to heavily reduce ice from pedestrian areas at all times, ahead of time.

Driving in winter, the hazards faced

It is critical to remind staff of the importance of being aware of the very real danger that comes with driving in wintery conditions. Simple measures that can be reiterated towards staff are the following: to ensure that your car battery is fully charged and car lights are fully operational, advise staff to take the best possible route to work, with a view to avoiding areas which they know to be more prone to black ice and heavy snow.

Workplace illness

Winter unfortunately also can have a less avoidable threat to staff wellness. Illness is rampant when weather conditions are poor, especially in winter. By visiting the NHS website you can see some of the main winter illnesses that they have listed down. As well as staff, it is just as important to protect visitors from workplace illness. So advising all members staff to stay clear of the workplace if they feel any type of flue or cold symptoms is vital. Going back to heating, ensuring that staff and visitors are kept warm and comfortable at all times is a good place to start for preventing workplace illness.

If you require any commercial services from us, whether it be Electrical Compliance, Fire Safety Compliance, Fire Stopping, Building Maintenance, Legionella Remote Monitoring, Remote Monitoring, Rolec EV Charging Points, or any other service that we supply throughout the UK, please contact us today - 01604 696113.