No business, or worker, can afford the potential damages incurred from preventable slips and slip-falls on the job.
Approximately 60,000 workers are injured on the job from slips, trips, and falls every year. This accounts for 15 per cent of the lost-time injuries accepted by Workers’ Compensation Boards (WCBs) across the country. In addition to being a substantial financial loss to both parties, these injuries can cause workers significant pain and suffering, and even death.
The statistics from the United States are even more staggering. 849 people died of work injuries caused by slips, trips, and falls in 2016, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. According to the National Safety Council (NSC), approximately 25,000 slip, trip, and fall injuries occur every day in the United States.
There are many factors that contribute to falls, and improper floor cleaning is among them. This is why it’s so important to identify and establish a formalized cleaning program to help mitigate these unfortunate and entirely preventable accidents that impact individuals and the businesses they work for or frequent.
Slips result from some kind of unexpected change in the contact between feet and the walking surface. Slip-falls occur when your feet go out from under you as the result of not having enough traction between your feet and the walking surface.
Set Up An Industrial Cleaning Protocol or Program
No facility is the same as the next. The cleaning challenges are completely unique from building to building.
Building or facility managers who identify and implement a proper cleaning program help ensure floors are cleaned regularly with safety as one of the top priorities. A program should include a regular cleaning schedule and should identify the following important components as well:
- Use appropriate barricades to redirect traffic during and directly following floor cleaning
- Consider and identify peak traffic hours, patterns, and potentially even weather conditions when scheduling floor cleanings
- Have a good understanding of the drying time prior to cleaning
- Keep thorough documentation regarding all cleanings, upcoming and previous
- Maintain inspection logs of each clean
- Ensure that there are current, and consistently updated, floor cleaning procedures available in writing. This includes products used, any changes to space or equipment, etc.
- Conduct regular evaluations of procedures to ensure they are up-to-date and effective
Ensure Cleaning Crews & Staff are Appropriately Trained
There’s no use implementing policies and procedures if no one knows they exist or if the staff hasn’t been thoroughly reviewed and trained in them. Keeping employees and crews current on proper procedures is crucial to any program’s success and mitigating any potential mishaps or even disasters.
Training includes ensuring that workers are made aware of overall cleaning procedures, as well as proper equipment usage, including specific cleaning policies for high-hazard areas.
No one, not employers and not workers, expects to incur financial and physical damages due to preventable slips and falls. Ensure you’re protecting yourself, your workers, and anyone else travelling your freshly cleaned floors by establishing a firm and up-to-date program to prevent ANY potential accidents.
Looking for more valuable safety tips related to your industrial cleaning needs? Click HERE to see what else you can do to ensure a safe and clean environment.
