When it comes to owning a business, one practice stands to be the most important: health and safety. Effective health and safety practice in the workplace ensures that you, your customers, clients, and staff are always in safe hands and have the lowest risk of developing an illness or injury in your place of work. This will not only prevent injury claims from being taken out against you and your company but will also make sure that everyone feels safe and comfortable throughout the experience you are providing them with. No matter how well prepared you may be, there are chances that you have missed something off your checklist. So here’s a quick run through of some things to keep an eye on in your store.
Fire Safety
It is absolutely imperative that your store has the necessary, regulated fire equipment to tackle a blaze if needs be. This means having fully functioning, reliable smoke alarms and a range of extinguishers within easy reach. Ensure that you and staff are completely trained in how to use this equipment and have a set procedure in place in case a fire does break out. You should make sure that your staff are trained to deal with fires and can safely escort customers out of the store and to a designated meeting place in a timely and calm manner, without causing fear or chaos. If you are especially vigilant, you may like to install a sprinkler system to put out large flames. You should also have fire exits clearly labeled, preferably lit up and viewable from all angles of your store space.
Power
Your store should always be prepared for the unfortunate event of a power cut. Power failures are less common nowadays than they were in the past and are often quickly rectified. However, it is still necessary that you have a commercial generator to tide your store over during any loss of mains power. Check your generator and if it is malfunctioning or completely broken, get a commercial generator replacement and soon as possible. This means that if the worst were to happen, customers could continue their in-store experience without any disruptions or trouble. You may even benefit from the situation, as other customers may leave other stores that lack power, congregating in your store and perhaps even making purchases.
Harmful Substances
Most stores won’t have to worry too much about toxic substance spillages, so will only skim read this section of health and safety precautions. But this is so important for any business. All stores will have some sort of cleaning products on site so that things can be kept hygienic and presentable. Ill health as a result of consumption or inhalation of these products could be potentially fatal. So it is important that they are kept locked away in a cupboard at all times when they are not in use. They should never be in reach of children, and you should ideally carry out cleaning once all customers have left the store, or before they enter in the mornings. If you do have to clean a spill during opening hours, make sure you have a hazard sign ready to indicate wet floors.
I hope you enjoyed this article about methods to utilize for helping to prepare your company for an emergency.
Interested in more articles about risk management?
Read My Posts:
- How To Respond To An Employee Claim
- Why You Need Property Insurance
Published by Michael J Schiemer
Owner of Bootstrap Business
Money - Marketing - Motivation
Digital Marketing | SEO | Social Media
Mike Schiemer Builds Better Business
Share This On Social Media:
