Snowfall this winter caused motorway chaos and disruptions to travel in some parts of the UK, and businesses with gritting services in place were in a far better position to cope than those without.
The snowfall caused school closures in Essex, Hertfordshire and Aberdeenshire, and there were major delays to public transport. Add to this the hazardous conditions caused by ice and snow on the roads and many people chose to stay at home, rather than brave the icy conditions.
As usual, all the main routes were gritted or cleared in advance of the snowfall, but the minor roads and pavements, as well as private roads, were left untreated. Unless these roads were gritted locally by volunteer residents and employees, they quickly became icy, endangering drivers and pedestrians.
Countless businesses were disrupted by snowfall this winter and some were forced to close as staff and customers were unable to get safe access to the premises.
While the freezing conditions made some companies focus on avoiding this safety issue. A number acted quickly to put gritting services in place before the next cold snap to prevent potential injuries in and around the workplace.
Gritting Services - click here for full information on how we can help
Who Was Hit the Hardest?
The companies that were hardest hit this winter were those taken by surprise, with no plan in place for gritting or clearing. Unfortunately, many of these businesses had walkways or car park areas with icy black spots that created a slipping hazard.
In some cases, businesses with no provision for gritting services meant that staff could not get into work or use the private car parking areas because they were covered in snow, so they were forced to return home. This meant at least a day’s loss of productivity which has an adverse effect on a business and is particularly unwelcome in today’s current climate.
Who Coped Best?
UK businesses that coped the best during the cold snap were those with plans in place, especially those with gritting services on standby. A gritting service that carries out pro-active weather monitoring means that you won’t be ‘taken by surprise’ by a change in the weather: your gritting service will tell you when the temperature plummets and carry out gritting in good time to prevent ice formation.
And if in the unlikely case that the weather is truly unpredictable and there is no advance snow warning, then your gritting service will be on the spot to clear snow and treat possible accident black spots.
Are You Ready for the Next Snowfall?
Typically, January and February are when we expect the most snow – and December snowfalls are often a light scattering in contrast to what is to come.
In mid-January, the lowest temperature recorded was -13.2C in Buxton, Norfolk, and several parts of the UK also had to brace themselves for heavy snow showers. The possibility of freezing fog in some parts of the UK makes the icy conditions even more dangerous for drivers and pedestrians. At the time of writing, temperatures were expected to get even colder as we moved into February and the possibility of snow was also predicted well into the spring.
Given the disruption caused by as little as an inch of snowfall in the UK, it makes sense for all businesses to organise contingency plans, if they haven’t done so already. The best way to ensure your businesses remains open during the snowy weather, and that your staff and customers can get to and from your premises safely, is to organise gritting services. A professional gritting service gives you complete peace of mind, whatever the weather.
Even if there is no risk of snowfall in your area, there is still a strong likelihood of below zero temperatures. And with 2012 being the second wettest year on record (with more rain expected) just add a bit of rain into the mix and you have a recipe for ice formation on car parks, pavements, private roads and walkways.
Snow was predicted for the whole of the UK this winter and could even persist into spring 2013. If December 2012 was a wake-up call for your business, it is important to protect yourself now by signing up with Ice Watch today. We provide full risk assessments, reporting, highly localised weather monitoring and gritting services. In addition to this, all our contracted clients are covered by full liability insurance.
Gritting Services - click here for full information on how we can help
Monday 25 February 2013
Friday 22 February 2013
Gritting Services – Not Just About Grit
We often connect gritting services with the visual aspects of it – such as staff in trucks turning up in the early hours to grit car parks, walkways, steps and ramps – but there is far more to this than meets the eye.
In fact gritting services are involved in a lot more than spreading grit when the weather turns icy; they are also there to provide you with the health and safety protection your business needs, including thorough risk management.
Gritting Services – click here for full information on how we can help.
Health and Safety – A Risk Management Approach
An effective gritting service needs to provide not just grit, but also a full risk management service. Businesses have a legal obligation to do all they can to protect anyone on their premises from harm, and this includes preventing injuries from falls due to the icy conditions. Although it is not possible to eliminate all accidents entirely, it is the job of a company or organisation to carry out a thorough risk assessment at the workplace to identify likely, or possible, accidents that may occur - and to put measures in place to address those risks.
Health and safety is all about making the workplace safer to protect staff and customers. It is vital to show that you have taken every reasonable precaution to prevent injuries. With Ice Watch gritting services you have complete peace of mind as we provide a full risk management service – so you don’t have to - and we keep full and accurate records to demonstrate you have taken proper steps towards making your business an accident free zone.
Key Elements of Risk Management
There are all sorts of elements involved in risk management and we shall outline some of those here.
Identifying a Risk – You can’t manage a risk until it has been properly identified. To identify risk you need a thorough risk assessment, preferably by someone impartial, such as a third party expert specifically trained to notice possible risks. A third party is more likely to spot potential risks, such as a slight slope at the front door that goes unnoticed by staff but which can become a major slipping risk when it gets icy. Ice Watch carry out a thorough risk assessment as standard and this includes all the proper documentation to demonstrate the steps you have made to identify risks.
Taking Action – Just documenting a risk is not enough. You actually need a fully documented action plan in place to address the risk – one that clearly identifies who is responsible for each action and in what circumstances. If it is an in-house action plan, this means naming the individuals responsible and specifying what happens when the person is on leave, off sick, or simply can’t get into work on the day the icy conditions strike. Companies either need a back-up arrangement, or risk no one taking vital action. By organising a dedicated gritting service, back up is guaranteed and contracting out means the responsibility lies with your gritting contractor, instead of you.
Ongoing Monitoring – Risk management relating to ice and snow at your business does not mean gritting once, and forgetting about it. It involves ongoing monitoring and using the information obtained from this monitoring to trigger action when needed. Full and accurate records must be taken at every step of the way. In winter time, ongoing monitoring involves daily and sometimes hourly checking of local temperatures and forecasts. This also involves overnight monitoring. So consider whether you have the resources to allocate someone in your company to do this. Most companies cannot allocate personnel for this, so Ice Watch takes this responsibility off your hands and not only does the monitoring for you, but fully documents it, contacting you as and when gritting is necessary.
Avoiding New Risks - Let’s suppose there are some hardy types in your company who are quite willing to go outside with snow shovels or bags of grit and take care of your winter gritting. This may at first look like a good solution. But what happens – and this is most likely the case – if the weather indicates your gritting needs to take place at 3am? Will they be willing to come into work at 3am? And even if they are, do you then expect them to go on to complete a normal, full working day? Creating a situation where your workers are fatigued for their normal duties could create an additional risk, particularly for any type of manual work.
Insurance – One of the biggest potential risks to a business is a successful liability claim against you. Having to pay thousands, and even in some cases hundreds of thousands of pounds to an injured party can be enough to wipe out a small company in one stroke. Of course businesses can take out their own insurance, but this means creating additional overheads that many would perhaps rather avoid. And insurance is often conditional on fulfilling all the risk assessment and monitoring activities mentioned above. An alternative is to choose gritting services that offer automatic liability insurance as part of their contract, as this means even if the worst should happen, your business won’t be exposed financially.
The easy way to fully manage any potential accident risk this winter is by employing professional gritting services such as Ice Watch who provide ongoing monitoring of local weather conditions, grit as and when needed, carry out full risk assessments and keep full and accurate reports. In addition to this, all business contracts are automatically covered by our £10 million liability insurance.
Gritting Services – click here for full information on how we can help.
In fact gritting services are involved in a lot more than spreading grit when the weather turns icy; they are also there to provide you with the health and safety protection your business needs, including thorough risk management.
Gritting Services – click here for full information on how we can help.
Health and Safety – A Risk Management Approach
An effective gritting service needs to provide not just grit, but also a full risk management service. Businesses have a legal obligation to do all they can to protect anyone on their premises from harm, and this includes preventing injuries from falls due to the icy conditions. Although it is not possible to eliminate all accidents entirely, it is the job of a company or organisation to carry out a thorough risk assessment at the workplace to identify likely, or possible, accidents that may occur - and to put measures in place to address those risks.
Health and safety is all about making the workplace safer to protect staff and customers. It is vital to show that you have taken every reasonable precaution to prevent injuries. With Ice Watch gritting services you have complete peace of mind as we provide a full risk management service – so you don’t have to - and we keep full and accurate records to demonstrate you have taken proper steps towards making your business an accident free zone.
Key Elements of Risk Management
There are all sorts of elements involved in risk management and we shall outline some of those here.
Identifying a Risk – You can’t manage a risk until it has been properly identified. To identify risk you need a thorough risk assessment, preferably by someone impartial, such as a third party expert specifically trained to notice possible risks. A third party is more likely to spot potential risks, such as a slight slope at the front door that goes unnoticed by staff but which can become a major slipping risk when it gets icy. Ice Watch carry out a thorough risk assessment as standard and this includes all the proper documentation to demonstrate the steps you have made to identify risks.
Taking Action – Just documenting a risk is not enough. You actually need a fully documented action plan in place to address the risk – one that clearly identifies who is responsible for each action and in what circumstances. If it is an in-house action plan, this means naming the individuals responsible and specifying what happens when the person is on leave, off sick, or simply can’t get into work on the day the icy conditions strike. Companies either need a back-up arrangement, or risk no one taking vital action. By organising a dedicated gritting service, back up is guaranteed and contracting out means the responsibility lies with your gritting contractor, instead of you.
Ongoing Monitoring – Risk management relating to ice and snow at your business does not mean gritting once, and forgetting about it. It involves ongoing monitoring and using the information obtained from this monitoring to trigger action when needed. Full and accurate records must be taken at every step of the way. In winter time, ongoing monitoring involves daily and sometimes hourly checking of local temperatures and forecasts. This also involves overnight monitoring. So consider whether you have the resources to allocate someone in your company to do this. Most companies cannot allocate personnel for this, so Ice Watch takes this responsibility off your hands and not only does the monitoring for you, but fully documents it, contacting you as and when gritting is necessary.
Avoiding New Risks - Let’s suppose there are some hardy types in your company who are quite willing to go outside with snow shovels or bags of grit and take care of your winter gritting. This may at first look like a good solution. But what happens – and this is most likely the case – if the weather indicates your gritting needs to take place at 3am? Will they be willing to come into work at 3am? And even if they are, do you then expect them to go on to complete a normal, full working day? Creating a situation where your workers are fatigued for their normal duties could create an additional risk, particularly for any type of manual work.
Insurance – One of the biggest potential risks to a business is a successful liability claim against you. Having to pay thousands, and even in some cases hundreds of thousands of pounds to an injured party can be enough to wipe out a small company in one stroke. Of course businesses can take out their own insurance, but this means creating additional overheads that many would perhaps rather avoid. And insurance is often conditional on fulfilling all the risk assessment and monitoring activities mentioned above. An alternative is to choose gritting services that offer automatic liability insurance as part of their contract, as this means even if the worst should happen, your business won’t be exposed financially.
The easy way to fully manage any potential accident risk this winter is by employing professional gritting services such as Ice Watch who provide ongoing monitoring of local weather conditions, grit as and when needed, carry out full risk assessments and keep full and accurate reports. In addition to this, all business contracts are automatically covered by our £10 million liability insurance.
Gritting Services – click here for full information on how we can help.
Wednesday 20 February 2013
Safeguarding Your Business by Safeguarding Your Employees This Winter
While we’ve looked at the Health and Safety issues around ice and snow before, including the role that professional gritting contractors can play in preventing accidents and keeping your business running, here we take a slightly broader look at the whole idea of what “safety” really means for your business and your workforce.
Health and Safety usually makes a business think of legal obligations and protecting employees and visitors from physical harm. In winter this will include taking precautions to deal with ice and snow to prevent slips and falls, and many businesses choose to hire professional gritting contractors to take care of this aspect for them – carrying out a full risk assessment for their premises, keeping all necessary paperwork required by Health &Safety regulations, and so on.
But we can also think about what “safety” means for your business from a slight different point of view – by thinking about ways that the business could be damaged as a business. After all, the livelihoods of many people may depend on your business continuing to trade successfully, so anything which damages that could have a serious impact on many people.
Safeguarding your business means thinking about and anticipating anything which could potentially damage your business, and putting plans or contingencies in place to minimise the chances of them happening, or to create alternative arrangements if the worst should happen.
Over the winter period there is an increased risk of damage to your business from two main sources:
Firstly, there is severe weather of all kinds, but particularly including ice and snow. Severe weather can mean employees not able to travel in to work, clients unable to attend meetings, and deliveries in and out slowed or stopped. No deliveries in can mean you don’t have the raw materials you need to run your business (e.g. factories, hotels, restaurants). No deliveries out can mean dissatisfied customers and a damaged reputation, which can impact on overall competitiveness. In addition, there may be a risk of injury to staff either travelling to and from work, or while on your premises. Of course, you can help to prevent accidents and keep things moving on your own premises by using gritting contractors, but you have less control about what happens off site.
Secondly, winter is a time when there is a greater chance of staff shortages due to illness or injury. Staff shortages can negatively impact your business in a number of ways, including an inability to fulfil customer demand and lower levels of customer service, both of which can damage customer trust and your hard earned reputation.
With these risks in mind it makes sense to anticipate them and put measures in place to minimise their effects. Here we suggest a number of actions that businesses can take to safeguard their business this winter.
1. Bad Weather Policy – While employees have a duty to try and attend work, even in extreme weather, equally they should not be made to feel pressurised to risk their own safety. An employee who is injured on the way to work as a result of severe weather may not be your direct responsibility, but they could still be off work for weeks or months, with consequent impact on your business. And if they can show that they were pressurised to travel, this could potentially give rise to a claim against you. While there is no clear legislation on the matter, it makes sense to prepare a “bad weather policy” for your company, making it clear what you expect of employees, and what they can expect of you in return, so that people aren’t struggling in unnecessarily. When there are warnings for “essential travel only”, think about what this should mean for your employees and whether having them struggle into work, potentially risking life and limb, is really essential for your business. A bad weather policy should make it clear when an employee is expected to attend work and under what conditions they are not. It should also make clear what happens if someone does not attend – whether they can make the time up later and the impact on their pay.
2. Show Flexibility – Rather than simply enforcing your rights as an employer, try to think of creative ways of minimising the risk to your workforce while also maximising resources to your business. It helps to look at the bigger picture, by focusing on keeping your business running successfully and keeping your customers happy, rather than worrying about whether your employees have worked every last minute of their contract. For instance, think about spreading the risk and allowing employees who live further afield, or who use riskier means of transport (e.g. car rather than train) to stay at home in severe weather. or think about creative ways that employees can make up lost time, without being penalised through loss of pay. Losing valuable and experienced staff because they feel disgruntled about how they were treated over the winter, could damage your business in the longer run.
3. Hire Gritting Contractors – There is little point in your employees struggling in to work only to find they cannot access your premises due to snow or ice, or suffering an injury as they get from their car to the building. Keep your business premises open and avoid injuries to staff by taking timely preventative action when icy conditions strike. The easiest way to do this is to hire professional gritting contractors who will actively monitor the local weather and arrange gritting for your site. This will prevent additional staff shortages due to illness being compounded by absences due to injury. By using professional gritting contractors rather than your own workforce, you are minimising the risk that gritting doesn’t happen because your own employees could not get into work.
4. Show Appreciation – If your employees are making the effort to get into work – perhaps leaving home much earlier than usual and getting home much later than usual as a result – think about ways you can be flexible in return. This might include allowing employees to start later or finish earlier in the day. If this isn’t feasible for operational reasons, think of other ways of recognising their efforts, perhaps by providing free hot drinks or snacks. A little team spirit during difficult times can be a great morale booster and motivate a team that is down on numbers to keep your business going.
5. Allow Working From Home – Think about any alternatives to employee travel that might help to keep your business going. For instance, can customer service employees work from home? If this needs certain software or technology to be installed to make this happen, work out how much it will cost and compare it to the cost of lost work days, lost orders or dissatisfied customers due to bad weather.
6. Stock Up – If possible, stock up on raw materials or other supplies needed to keep operations going, so you’re not so affected if there are a few days of disruption.
7. Plan Ahead – If your business involves moving physical goods, consider getting orders out earlier than planned, to minimise the chance of late orders.
8. Use Technology – If your business involves face to face meetings with clients, think about conducting meetings by phone or video conference instead, if they are agreeable. If your clients are out of your local area, make sure you keep them informed of local weather conditions and any severe weather warnings. They might not like having to postpone a meeting but will appreciate being warned of any problems ahead of time. It also enhances your company’s image of being organised and professional.
9. Keep Customers Informed – Tell customers about upcoming weather issues and tell them how you plan to manage the situation and specifically how you intend to deal with their specific requirements. This demonstrates your care for them and will help to ameliorate any reputational damage if you’re unable to deliver.
10. Plan Communications – Ensure you have a means to communicate with employees at home, so that you can assess their local travel situation and monitor things daily. For instance, email, phone, or perhaps posting status information on your company website for people to read. At the very least, give employees a point of contact to ring if they experience travel difficulties so at least you know if someone is able to come in or not. If you are using the internet to communicate, make sure that whoever is doing the updating can do so from home or won’t be affected by the bad weather (e.g. someone who lives close to work).
11. Help Employees Prepare – Encourage employees who are travelling in by car to ensure they are prepared for cold weather. This includes carrying essential items such as an ice scraper, a torch, de-icer, food, hot drinks and warm clothing. But it also includes ensuring the car itself is ready, such as a full tank of petrol, a good level of tread on tyres and so on. You could consider referring employees to the GOV.UK web page on the subject. It also makes sense to ensure they carry a mobile phone which is fully charged, either to call for help if required, or simply to keep in touch with the business (not while they are driving of course!). If a particular employee is so critical to your business that they need to travel in during severe weather, then it probably makes business sense to provide them with a temporary pay-as-you-go phone for this purpose, if they do not have one of their own.
12. Minimise Sickness - Minimise illness within your company by encouraging those with symptoms to stay away and avoid infecting everyone else. This is especially important in open plan offices where transmission rates have been shown to be much higher. You might also include encouraging parents of children with colds and flu to work from home, to prevent transmission of their children’s illness. As well as cutting down on the total number of people off sick, showing trust in your workforce to be honest about this will reap rewards in terms of loyalty and motivation down the line.
In short, taking a Health & Safety view can mean not only protecting yourself from the possibility of claims, but also help in practical ways to minimise the damage that bad weather can do to your business (fewer accidents and fewer days off sick), as well as helping to promote loyalty and motivation amongst your workforce.
Ice Watch are gritting contractors serving businesses and organisations throughout the UK. Call us today on 01728 633900.
Health and Safety usually makes a business think of legal obligations and protecting employees and visitors from physical harm. In winter this will include taking precautions to deal with ice and snow to prevent slips and falls, and many businesses choose to hire professional gritting contractors to take care of this aspect for them – carrying out a full risk assessment for their premises, keeping all necessary paperwork required by Health &Safety regulations, and so on.
But we can also think about what “safety” means for your business from a slight different point of view – by thinking about ways that the business could be damaged as a business. After all, the livelihoods of many people may depend on your business continuing to trade successfully, so anything which damages that could have a serious impact on many people.
Safeguarding your business means thinking about and anticipating anything which could potentially damage your business, and putting plans or contingencies in place to minimise the chances of them happening, or to create alternative arrangements if the worst should happen.
Over the winter period there is an increased risk of damage to your business from two main sources:
Firstly, there is severe weather of all kinds, but particularly including ice and snow. Severe weather can mean employees not able to travel in to work, clients unable to attend meetings, and deliveries in and out slowed or stopped. No deliveries in can mean you don’t have the raw materials you need to run your business (e.g. factories, hotels, restaurants). No deliveries out can mean dissatisfied customers and a damaged reputation, which can impact on overall competitiveness. In addition, there may be a risk of injury to staff either travelling to and from work, or while on your premises. Of course, you can help to prevent accidents and keep things moving on your own premises by using gritting contractors, but you have less control about what happens off site.
Secondly, winter is a time when there is a greater chance of staff shortages due to illness or injury. Staff shortages can negatively impact your business in a number of ways, including an inability to fulfil customer demand and lower levels of customer service, both of which can damage customer trust and your hard earned reputation.
With these risks in mind it makes sense to anticipate them and put measures in place to minimise their effects. Here we suggest a number of actions that businesses can take to safeguard their business this winter.
1. Bad Weather Policy – While employees have a duty to try and attend work, even in extreme weather, equally they should not be made to feel pressurised to risk their own safety. An employee who is injured on the way to work as a result of severe weather may not be your direct responsibility, but they could still be off work for weeks or months, with consequent impact on your business. And if they can show that they were pressurised to travel, this could potentially give rise to a claim against you. While there is no clear legislation on the matter, it makes sense to prepare a “bad weather policy” for your company, making it clear what you expect of employees, and what they can expect of you in return, so that people aren’t struggling in unnecessarily. When there are warnings for “essential travel only”, think about what this should mean for your employees and whether having them struggle into work, potentially risking life and limb, is really essential for your business. A bad weather policy should make it clear when an employee is expected to attend work and under what conditions they are not. It should also make clear what happens if someone does not attend – whether they can make the time up later and the impact on their pay.
2. Show Flexibility – Rather than simply enforcing your rights as an employer, try to think of creative ways of minimising the risk to your workforce while also maximising resources to your business. It helps to look at the bigger picture, by focusing on keeping your business running successfully and keeping your customers happy, rather than worrying about whether your employees have worked every last minute of their contract. For instance, think about spreading the risk and allowing employees who live further afield, or who use riskier means of transport (e.g. car rather than train) to stay at home in severe weather. or think about creative ways that employees can make up lost time, without being penalised through loss of pay. Losing valuable and experienced staff because they feel disgruntled about how they were treated over the winter, could damage your business in the longer run.
3. Hire Gritting Contractors – There is little point in your employees struggling in to work only to find they cannot access your premises due to snow or ice, or suffering an injury as they get from their car to the building. Keep your business premises open and avoid injuries to staff by taking timely preventative action when icy conditions strike. The easiest way to do this is to hire professional gritting contractors who will actively monitor the local weather and arrange gritting for your site. This will prevent additional staff shortages due to illness being compounded by absences due to injury. By using professional gritting contractors rather than your own workforce, you are minimising the risk that gritting doesn’t happen because your own employees could not get into work.
4. Show Appreciation – If your employees are making the effort to get into work – perhaps leaving home much earlier than usual and getting home much later than usual as a result – think about ways you can be flexible in return. This might include allowing employees to start later or finish earlier in the day. If this isn’t feasible for operational reasons, think of other ways of recognising their efforts, perhaps by providing free hot drinks or snacks. A little team spirit during difficult times can be a great morale booster and motivate a team that is down on numbers to keep your business going.
5. Allow Working From Home – Think about any alternatives to employee travel that might help to keep your business going. For instance, can customer service employees work from home? If this needs certain software or technology to be installed to make this happen, work out how much it will cost and compare it to the cost of lost work days, lost orders or dissatisfied customers due to bad weather.
6. Stock Up – If possible, stock up on raw materials or other supplies needed to keep operations going, so you’re not so affected if there are a few days of disruption.
7. Plan Ahead – If your business involves moving physical goods, consider getting orders out earlier than planned, to minimise the chance of late orders.
8. Use Technology – If your business involves face to face meetings with clients, think about conducting meetings by phone or video conference instead, if they are agreeable. If your clients are out of your local area, make sure you keep them informed of local weather conditions and any severe weather warnings. They might not like having to postpone a meeting but will appreciate being warned of any problems ahead of time. It also enhances your company’s image of being organised and professional.
9. Keep Customers Informed – Tell customers about upcoming weather issues and tell them how you plan to manage the situation and specifically how you intend to deal with their specific requirements. This demonstrates your care for them and will help to ameliorate any reputational damage if you’re unable to deliver.
10. Plan Communications – Ensure you have a means to communicate with employees at home, so that you can assess their local travel situation and monitor things daily. For instance, email, phone, or perhaps posting status information on your company website for people to read. At the very least, give employees a point of contact to ring if they experience travel difficulties so at least you know if someone is able to come in or not. If you are using the internet to communicate, make sure that whoever is doing the updating can do so from home or won’t be affected by the bad weather (e.g. someone who lives close to work).
11. Help Employees Prepare – Encourage employees who are travelling in by car to ensure they are prepared for cold weather. This includes carrying essential items such as an ice scraper, a torch, de-icer, food, hot drinks and warm clothing. But it also includes ensuring the car itself is ready, such as a full tank of petrol, a good level of tread on tyres and so on. You could consider referring employees to the GOV.UK web page on the subject. It also makes sense to ensure they carry a mobile phone which is fully charged, either to call for help if required, or simply to keep in touch with the business (not while they are driving of course!). If a particular employee is so critical to your business that they need to travel in during severe weather, then it probably makes business sense to provide them with a temporary pay-as-you-go phone for this purpose, if they do not have one of their own.
12. Minimise Sickness - Minimise illness within your company by encouraging those with symptoms to stay away and avoid infecting everyone else. This is especially important in open plan offices where transmission rates have been shown to be much higher. You might also include encouraging parents of children with colds and flu to work from home, to prevent transmission of their children’s illness. As well as cutting down on the total number of people off sick, showing trust in your workforce to be honest about this will reap rewards in terms of loyalty and motivation down the line.
In short, taking a Health & Safety view can mean not only protecting yourself from the possibility of claims, but also help in practical ways to minimise the damage that bad weather can do to your business (fewer accidents and fewer days off sick), as well as helping to promote loyalty and motivation amongst your workforce.
Ice Watch are gritting contractors serving businesses and organisations throughout the UK. Call us today on 01728 633900.
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