A slip and fall at work can lead to many problems you might not be aware of. Broken bones, lacerations, severe trauma, and injuries to the body or head are just some of them.
Workplace injuries are some of a business’s most common compensation claims among its employees. The amount to be paid out for the compensation will depend on the severity of the injury and your slip and fall lawyer. The good thing is that slips, trips, and falls at work can be easily avoided.
All you need to do is take extra precautions to ensure your workplace is as safe as possible. As a business owner, the safety of your employees and your client must be safe on your premises. A fall could mean compensation and a potential lawsuit if the injury is serious.
How do you prevent slip and falls in the workplace? Here are four possible strategies:
1. Check walking spaces.
Especially high traffic areas. Any fluids or spills should quickly be mopped up, and walking surfaces should always be kept clean and dry. This will reduce the possibility that your employees (or clients) might slip and attain an injury.
Walking spaces should also be kept clutter-free. When there’s no clutter, debris, or hazardous material around, the potential for slips and falls is significantly reduced.
For other conditions, all floors and walking spaces should be checked as often as possible. Always check all the floors (especially high traffic areas) for any cracks and holes. Checks should be done not just for walking spaces inside your building but on the outside too.
If you do spot a problem, it should be fixed straight away when the problem can’t be fixed right away (because it needs major repair work), block off the area as much as possible with warning signs.
2. Ensure all your stairways have handrails.
This is something that surprisingly gets overlooked. Maybe not every employee uses a handrail when they go up and down the stairs, but installing these is still a good idea. You’d be surprised how quickly a sudden slip can happen on the stairway. When there’s nothing for you to hold or grab on to, serious injuries could happen.
Besides installing handrails, it is also a good idea to ensure that all the stairways in your building are well lit. Everything should be able to be seen so your employees can easily spot when there is a potential hazard in their way.
A good tip is to mark the top and bottom of your stairways with reflective tape. This will make the start and end of the stairway so much easier to spot when it’s nighttime, especially before the stairway lights come on.
3. Encourage employees to wear the proper footwear.
Encourage all your employees to wear proper and comfortable footwear while they are at work. All footwear should be appropriate for your employees’ work conditions. For example, if your employees need to work on a slippery surface, they should wear footwear with the proper traction.
4. Set up signs that are well placed and easy to see.
One or two areas around your office building could be potentially problematic. It happens because it has uneven ground or flooring, cracks in the floor, and gaps here and there. If that is the case, ensure these areas are marked with the proper signage.
Calling attention to these areas will make your employees more aware and exercise caution when they are around the area. Installing spotlights around these areas at night will also help to call attention to these areas. This will significantly reduce the chances of slips and falls happening at the workplace.
5. Install rugs and non-slip mats on slippery surfaces.
Slippery surfaces like bathrooms and areas prone to splashes and wet spots can be tricky. Non-slip mats or rugs could help solve this problem and minimize the possibility of incidents.
6. Provide step ladders or step stools around the workplace.
There will be some areas around the workplace that will be hard to reach. But employees might still need to access these areas once in a while. If that is the case, step ladders or step stools should be available around these areas to make it easy for your employees to safely access them.
Step stools or ladders are decidedly the safer options compared to climbing on desks, chairs, or tables. Keep it safe for everyone involved by ensuring safe options are ready and present.
Always make sure spills on surfaces are cleaned up as quickly as possible. That is because if allowed to seep into the floor surfaces, they can become decidedly more slippery, even after it has been cleaned up.
