7 Ways to Ensure the Safety of Your Commercial Premises

There are plenty of things that can impact the success of your business. But there’s arguably none worse than a safety incident at your premises. If that happens, your business won’t just face financial repercussions, but it could also face legal ones, too. Plus, as a good employer, it’s essential that you create a safe environment for your employees. In this blog, we’re going to run through some effective methods for ensuring that your commercial premises are as safe as can be.

Hire an Expert

To put your business on the path towards impeccable safety, you’ll need to know what the safety threats are. Sometimes, this is an easy process because identifying safety issues is relatively straightforward. In other types of facilities, it’s more difficult. If you’re unable to clearly identify what the safety concerns may be, then it’s recommended that you hire a safety expert to do the job for you. They’ll be able to tell you where your potential weak points are and make recommendations for how you can improve things.

Take Care of the Infrastructure

There are plenty of things that can cause a safety incident at your business. The leading non-human cause of accidents is faulty infrastructure. As such, it’s important that you make every effort to ensure that the infrastructure of your business is watertight from a safety point of view. For example, are your safety valves up to standard? Is your roof watertight and secure? This is something that requires ongoing management — you can’t just look at these things once and expect them to work forever. After all, things do lose their quality over time.

Train Your Staff

Most workplace accidents are a result of human error. That’s not to say it’s the employee’s fault, however. If they haven’t been specifically trained to use the company’s equipment properly, then it’s actually the company’s fault, not the employee’s. Health and safety training isn’t the most exciting task, sure, but it is a critical one. You should be conducting regular training sessions so that your team is always up to date with the latest practices. It’s a good idea to hire a professional to lead the training sessions unless you have specific training in that field.

Maintain a Clean and Tidy Environment

There are plenty of workplaces that are safe when they’re in spotless condition. It’s when they’re not in a spotless condition that issues arise. This is a particular issue in warehouses and factories, but in truth, all business premises can suffer from being untidy. It just makes the environment more dangerous — it’s not hard to see how an injury could occur if someone was carrying something and tripped over an item that shouldn’t be there. As such, it’s imperative that you’re working to keep your work environment clean and tidy at all times. If you have a particularly busy workplace, then it could be a good idea to hire a cleaner to do the task for you.

Take Every Incident Seriously

Serious accidents in the workplace are rare. However, when you look at the events leading up to those incidents, you usually find that the signs that something bad was going to happen were there. It’s just that those early signs were non-serious injuries, so no one took them seriously. It’s for this reason that you should take every incident in the workplace seriously, even if the injury is extremely minimal. You might have just gotten lucky this time around — the next time could result in a serious injury.

Health and Safety Tools

It’s essential to invest in the correct health and safety tools for your site. It’s not hard to see how a fire extinguisher could be extremely useful if the premises experienced flames. There’s much more to know about safety equipment than you might expect, however. There are various different types of fire extinguishers, for example, with each type being used to put out a different type of fire. You will also want to have an extensive first aid kit, as well as any equipment that is specific to your particular line of work.

Secure the Premises

Finally, be sure to work on securing your premises so that no one can enter the building. The chances of someone entering your facility with the intention of doing harm are extremely small, but it’s not zero. Having keypad access, CCTV cameras, and other security equipment won’t just protect your team of staff but will also ensure that your site is kept safe when you’re not there too.