Don’t Let Health And Safety Slide This Christmas
For many businesses the run up to Christmas is often their busiest time of the year, which can lead to health and safety measures sliding as people focus on managing customers and the shop floor, rather than more important safety tasks. Warehouses and retail shops are especially prone to this kind of behaviour, which is why we have come up with some top tips and things to watch out for over this busy period.
New Starters
Due to the increase in demand you may have recently employed a load of new starters or temporary workers to help out over this stressful time. It is important that they are treated the same as any other employee and are given the same training information as well as health and safety and fire instructions. It is often easy to forget things like this if you suddenly take on a large amount of new starters, and it can be tempting to forgo these instructions, especially if they are temporary staff, however it is illegal to ignore this.
Extra Stock
With all of the extra stock that is in and around warehouses and stores, there is often an issue with safety. It is essential that you don’t let regular health and safety rules drop, as things such blocking fire exits and propping fire doors open with boxes is an extremely dangerous hazard. You should ensure that all regulations are kept to by yourself and staff, to ensure that no one is put in any danger; plan ahead to ensure that the large influx of extra stock is managed safely.
Check Your Fire Safety Equipment
It is essential that you regularly check your fire safety equipment, as in case of an emergency all staff need to know that is all fully functional and working correctly. You should ensure that you have the correct safety equipment suitable for your line of work, and purchase off a reputable supplier such as SHS Handling Solutions. You should also check that you have the correct signage around the property, detailing where all of the emergency exits are; this is important for not only your staff, but also your customers and clients.
Machinery Safety
You should ensure that anyone using any type of electrical equipment or machinery, especially in warehouses are fully trained, to make sure that there are no accidents. You should also ensure that others around the warehouse are fully briefed on warehouse etiquette, and how they should behave around others using these pieces of machinery.
By following these health and safety tips, you can ensure that your business runs smoothly over the Christmas period with minimal damage and accidents. You will be much better off following a few simple health and safety procedures now, than having to stop work altogether if there has been an accident later on down the line.
