Protect Your Staff and Customers: The Ultimate Guide

Keeping your business safe is vital for both your employees and your customers. Whether you own a store where customers come in and out every day or an office where clients occasionally come for meetings, you need to protect everyone on your premises. Maintaining safety for your business means paying attention to a lot of different things. If anyone gets hurt, it could spell big trouble for you, and you’re probably not going to feel great about it, either. Fortunately, many of the steps that you take to protect your staff are going to help protect your customers too. You have a duty to prevent any accidents, so make sure you stay on top of everything.

 

Preventing Trips, Slips and Falls

 

Sometimes, it’s the seemingly everyday things that can cause accidents around your business premises. Anyone could trip and fall at home or while out and about, and sometimes it’s just because they’re not paying attention or they stumble for no reason. But there are occasions when an accident could have been prevented, and you could find yourself dealing with a sticky situation if that turns out to be the case on your premises. Preventing trips, slips and falls involves keeping a clean and tidy establishment. You need to be vigilant about any hazards that could trip people up.

 

It’s a good idea to inspect your business for any potential hazards that could trip people. For example, loose carpet could get caught under someone’s foot. If you have a sudden step or drop in the floor, it’s a good idea to have a warning about it. Make sure you warn of temporary situations too. If the floor is wet because of cleaning, a spill or because it’s raining, use a wet floor sign to let everyone know that they need to be careful.

Protect Your Staff and Customers: The Ultimate Guide

 

Stay on Top of Repairs and Maintenance

 

General repairs and maintenance are necessary for any business. Not only do they prevent your business from looking bad, but they keep everything running smoothly too. Keeping up with repairs and maintenance can cause all kinds of accidents, from serious incidents like gas leaks to people falling over. Even a light bulb going bust could present a hazard, leaving people walking about in the dark. It’s a good idea to have a maintenance schedule for regular jobs that need to be carried out. You might have a permanent member of staff who can take care of maintenance problems for you or you might have someone on call who can come in when you need them.

 

Improve Security

 

Your business’s security is another important factor to pay attention to if you want to protect your staff and your customers. How you approach security will probably depend on what type of business you have and what your premises are like. For retail spaces, security staff can be useful because they do the double job of protecting both people and goods. As well as preventing unwanted behavior toward your staff and customers, they can also be on the lookout for shoplifters. Other businesses might not require security staff, but other measures could be a good idea. Perhaps your staff need security passes to enter the building, or you might have a security alarm or CCTV.

 

Make Sure Everyone Gets Along

 

One of the biggest threats to the safety of your staff could be workplace bullying and harassment. And staff members who are treating colleagues unkindly could be more likely to do the same with your customers. The first step you should take is to have a strong policy against bullying and harassment, as well as a rigorous process for dealing with it. There’s no point taking a strong stance against harassment if nothing happens when someone reports unwanted behavior. You should make sure that your managers are trained in dealing with these problems, but also be aware that management can be guilty of it themselves. All of your employees should be aware of your policies and what they can do if they feel that a manager is bullying them.

 

Maintaining Fire Safety

 

Fire safety is vital to consider if you want to keep your staff and customers safe. You’re legally required to maintain fire safety to help prevent fires and get everyone to a safe place if one does occur. You can do lots of things to ensure fire safety for your business. Regular fire alarm servicing is essential because your alarm system gives everyone warning if smoke or a fire is detected. When your alarm does sound, everyone needs to know the best route to take to get outside, and where they should assemble. Having maps and signs pointing towards fire exits gives everyone clear directions, which are especially important in large buildings like hotels. Sprinkler systems are suitable and even necessary for some buildings too.

Protect Your Staff and Customers: The Ultimate Guide

 

Secure Things Digitally

 

Digital security is also an essential way you should be protecting your customers and staff. Maintaining cybersecurity prevents the theft of sensitive data that you might hold on them. It’s crucial to have a plan for digital security so that you can avoid problems with viruses, hackers and other issues. It’s even more important for some industries, such as medical care, but every business needs to be careful about how they handle other people’s information. You should think carefully about what kind of information you need to store and how to prevent it getting into the wrong hands.

 

Train Your Staff

 

Staff training is a key part in boosting safety levels for your business. It helps to keep them safe, and it helps to keep customers safe too. There are lots of things your employees can learn, from how to handle confrontations with customers to what to do in the event of a fire. Regular training sessions help you keep them up to date on how to protect themselves and how to protect customers too. You might consider giving special safety roles to some members of staff. It could be their responsibility to handle things when the fire alarm sounds or perhaps check that their workspace is free of any hazards.

 

Ensure Accessibility

 

Your business premises should be accessible for everyone. Reading up on what to do to make your business more accessible can have huge benefits for its safety. Some of the things that you might need to consider include whether doorways are wide enough for wheelchairs to get through and whether there are any tripping hazards on the floor. Another thing to consider is whether it’s easy for people with sight or hearing impairments to get around. There’s plenty of information about your duties regarding accessibility, as well as how you can go beyond what’s required by the law.

 

Care for Your Staff’s Health

 

Something that you might not think about is the health of your staff. Of course, you need to protect them from injury or anything that could make them ill. However, it’s also important to consider how their working conditions can have an impact on their health that might not always be so obvious. For example, long hours and heavy workloads could leave your staff dealing with a lot of stress. Poor physical and mental health could mean that accidents are more likely and even violent incidents could be a risk.

 

Take Precautions When Carrying Out Work

 

If you’re going to have any temporary work taking place, make sure that you have the appropriate precautions put in place. When part of your business becomes a construction site, or you have people renovating, there can be lots of new hazards that aren’t usually present. You might need to have signage warning people of work taking place, or you might need to section off the area to ensure no one gets too close. If you hire contractors, make sure they know how to keep everything safe while they’re working.

 

Maintain Hygiene

 

Hygiene is an important part of keeping your business safe. A clean business has fewer germs and should be tidy to reduce hazards too. Hygiene is even more important for some businesses, such as those in hospitality or healthcare. Strict hygiene standards can be necessary to prevent health problems, from food poisoning to MRSA. Once your business is dealing with a hygiene issue, it could be difficult to get it under control. You might not be allowed to operate while the issue is ongoing, so there could be a lot at stake.

 

Document Incidents

 

If anything does happen on your premises, it’s important to document each incident. It might not be your fault, but that only gives you a further reason to write down what happened. Documenting any accidents or injuries will also help you to improve the safety of your business. Even if the incident wasn’t due to negligence or anything you did or didn’t do, there could still be ways you can prevent it from happening again in the future.

 

To protect your employees and your customers, be thorough with surveying safety for your business. Many factors can contribute to how safe your premises are.

Protect Your Staff and Customers: The Ultimate Guide

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