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In this day and age, companies are really hot on making their workplace fit in with health and safety regulations. This is because they can be faced with legal action if there is an accident and it is deemed to be their fault. Some people remember in the old days when the rules were less stringent and they could do whatever they want in the workplace, even smoke on the factory floor. But, times have changed, and rightly so. Workers should be safe in the workplace and they should not be met with any circumstance where they might be put in harms way. Some companies wish that they could go back to the way things were and they just sorted health and safety issues themselves, but things are never going to be like that and that says more about them than it says about their workers. If you are thinking of opening a business and you have already bought the offices or the places of work, then read ahead for some tips on how to make the workplace fit in with health and safety regulations. Fire Exits In your workplace, you need to have fire exits all over the place. You need to have more than one, just in case one of the exits is blocked by fire, so there is another option for people to get out. Otherwise, the fire exit is ineffective and your worker's lives are at risk. The fires exits need to be clearly marked and your workers need to know exactly where they are. This is easy to do because when you hire a new member staff, they will be given an induction. During this induction you should make sure they know where the exits are. Most companies choose to have their fire exits marked with signs that say 'fire exit' in bold letters, so that they are easy to see. Other companies might just have a sign with a symbol on. It is up to you which option you choose, but make sure that if you choose the latter, that each person knows what the symbol is. In addition to fire exits, you should have doors that are fire doors. This is nothing to do with getting people out, it is more to do with keeping the fire contained so that it does not spread. For example, if there is a fire in a corridor and the fire alarm is activated, then the fire door will be on a mechanism so that the door closes automatically. This shuts off oxygen to the fire and thus the fire does not spread into that room. This does not mean that you should hide in a room with a fire door because harmful chemicals will still be making their way into that room. The fire door will stop the spread of the fire, but it will not keep staff safe. They should make their way to an exit as soon as possible. Stairs When there is a fire, people should use stairs to exit and they should not go anywhere near a lift. This is because the electricity might be switched off in a case of fire and anyone in the lift will be trapped. Therefore, you need to make sure the stairs are safe. You should think about using non-slip tape on your stairs so that people don't fall when they are trying to get out, especially if the sprinklers have been activated and the stairs are wet.
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