The holidays usually bring several things to a small business – more foot traffic, celebratory decorations and additional staff to help with boosted sales. However, with added customers and distractions, slips and trips are never far away. So when getting into the holiday spirit, you should make safety a priority.
Training Employees on Safety Practices are Key to Reducing Injuries
- Make sure new hires are familiar with their surroundings and responsibilities. While they may have a lot of industry experience, your unique facility is still unfamiliar territory to them.
- Train employees in proper lifting techniques and ladder safety.
- Ensure that your candles are battery operated. Decorations can contribute to potential accidents and injuries. In a busy retail environment, or even in the office, faux candles may be best.
- Choose your decorations wisely. Some of them may be combustible. Things like paper, decorated trees and wreaths will increase the fire load in an area. Keep them away from heat or other ignition sources.
- Use extension cords properly, and be sure you are not stringing multiple chains together in order to extend a decoration to an area where the plug cannot reach. Aside from a potential trip and fall incident, this could also cause a fire hazard.
- Choose smart locations for any additional holiday displays and products. Be sure you are not covering up emergency exit signs, over-crowding aisle ways, or any place that would make it difficult to get out in an emergency situation.
- Be sure decorations are secured properly and foot traffic can navigate easily around them, especially when it comes to big displays.
- Maintain appropriate inventory levels. Over-stocking shelves could result in items toppling onto staff or customers.
- Scan your facility to make sure it is safe for customers and employees. It should be a part of everyone’s daily process.