In order to make sure your business is operating within the law you will need to adhere to a number of health and safety laws, these laws are an agreement between employers and employees to ensure a safe working environment free from hazards and potential accidents. In many industrial businesses these situations can be more present than others and so you may need to spend a lot of time both training your employees to practice due care but also ensure there are safety equipment and signs to protect them from any accidents.
The office working environment may seem a fairly mundane and safe location compared to the factory or assembly line environment but there are still risks present in the office environment which could equipment management pdf lead to injuries or serious accidents. There are obvious risks such as fires which can happen anywhere but also specific office based issues such as moving furniture or slipping on wet floors.
Some offices may have tiled or lino flooring in kitchen areas or near entrances which when wet can be quite slippery. If it is raining outside then as people enter the building and walk on the floor they will bring in a lot of rainwater which could make the entrance to your office incredibly hazardous if you do not mop it up. Likewise if you spill any liquids in the kitchen area then people could slip and fall there too, therefore it’s important that you either mop up the spill yourself or clearly mark out the area with a sign or note and inform a cleaner or the management about the hazard.
Fire extinguishers are important in an office as computers and electrical equipment as well as plenty of paper which can be fuel to a fire. There are a few different fire extinguishers which may be needed industrial safety devices for an office environment as different types of fire need different types of extinguisher such as wood or paper based fires need different extinguishing material than an electrical based fire.
As well as safety equipment there needs to be some form of organisation when it comes to fire safety in an office environment, most offices will have fire bell tests and even the occasional fire drill where you will have to evacuate your office as a test for when a real fire occurs. A fire safety officer or marshal should instruct employees where to go and to usher them out of the building and to the agreed assembly point. When inducting new employees you should make sure you inform new employees of where their fire assembly point is too.
