Whether you love it or hate it, winter is inevitable in Canada. When the season hits, it presents a bunch of challenges for people everywhere. Business owners face significant challenges during seasonal changes in the country. As temperatures continue to plummet, businesses face a unique set of challenges that can threaten daily operations, employee safety and property integrity. From icy walkways to frozen pipes to clogged gutters, severe weather from the colder months can turn minor issues into costly problems if you’re not adequately prepared. Taking these proactive business winter safety tips to winter-proof your business will not only help you prevent damage and costly downtime but also ensure you, your employees, and your customers have a safe, welcoming environment.
Business Winter Safety Tips: A Guide
So, how does one safeguard their business during the winter months? Luckily for you, isure has steps to help make your business’s winter hassle-free.
1. Focus On Your Sidewalk and Entrances
Just like a home, slip and fall accidents can happen at businesses, too. These can injure customers and visitors who are either visiting or just passing by, so you must be prepared. When a big snowfall hits, it’s essential to be ready to clear your property as soon as possible. This can be done yourself, or, if you’re part of a large commercial property, hire a snow removal contractor. If your property has a driveway and parking lot, make sure you mark any curbs, speed bumps and ramps with high-contrast paint or stakes.
Just like your home, you must stock up on sand or de-icing salt. This should be sprinkled on driveways, sidewalks and pathways leading to any entrances or exits of your business to keep them free of ice. Remember to keep emergency exits and delivery bays cleared! A good tip is to keep a log book of dates and times when snow was removed from your property and when any de-icing salt was applied. This way you can make sure it’s done and never forget!
2. Roll Out The Anti-Slip Welcome Mats
A classic welcome mat can be a great way to greet your customers to your cozy business. However, this should be replaced with some anti-slip mats when the weather is ugly. Snow outside, which customers and employees trudge indoors, can lead to wet, slick floors. As you can imagine, this poses as another slip-and-fall hazard.
Not only are anti-slip mats essential in the entrance of your store or office, but it’s also vital to ensure employees use a mop and bucket to quickly mop up pooling water in areas inside your workplace where customers frequent. Please always keep an eye on the entrance to ensure no slippery areas are created.
3. Use Signs To Warn Customers Of Slippery Surfaces
Whether it’s indoors or outdoors, giving customers and visitors a heads-up about icy or slippery surfaces is critical. This can make people more aware and more careful, ensuring they do not injure themselves by falling.
4. Make Sure Your Handrails Are Sturdy
Whether it’s the entrance to your business or stairs to a separate floor, make sure the handrails are sturdy and not loose. A lot of people, particularly older adults, rely on these to manoeuvre, especially during the colder months!
5. Make Sure Your Gutters Aren’t Clogged
When the leaves fall in autumn, your business property’s eavestroughs and downspouts can become clogged with debris. When winter rolls around, it is essential to make sure that your gutters and downspouts aren’t blocked.
Clear debris and schedule a mid-winter inspection to ensure ice-dams don’t form. It is also important to ensure that melting snow can easily flow off your roof, especially flat roofs, and away from your building’s foundation. If you have a high roof or are unable to access it, you can always hire a contractor to clear debris for you!
6. Fire Safety Measures
Fire isn’t a winter-only threat to businesses. However, it is important and worthwhile to review and inspect your fire safety measures at least twice a year.
Make sure that your fire extinguishers in your business are easily accessible, visible and in working order. It is also essential to check all smoke, fire and carbon monoxide alarms by replacing their batteries and testing them. You can take an extra step by ensuring your employees are up to date on fire safety protocols and your company’s emergency procedures.
7. Maintain A Steady Temperature Indoors
Let’s face it, nobody likes to be cold! Make sure your heat is on and set minimum temps for off-hours. Not only does this make you and your visitors more comfortable, but it also helps prevent property damage. When it’s too cold inside, water pipes can freeze, and mould can form.
Make sure you replace your furnace filters and test your thermostats. If you want to go the extra mile, invest in some smart sensors that will wirelessly connect to your phone to alert you if the temperature suddenly plummets indoors.
8. Get Your Roof Inspected
The colder months can be brutal for your roof. With this in mind, it’s a good idea to hire a roofing contractor to inspect your building’s roof. This can spot any loose roofing shingles, leaks, or any potential problems that could lead to a collapsed roof or ice dams forming.
9. Inspect And Insulate Your Water Pipes
As mentioned above, a common risk that businesses face when the temperature drops is freezing water pipes. These are key reasons water damage occurs inside a building. By hiring a plumber to inspect your property’s water pipes, you can catch potential problems before they worsen. Make sure your water pipes are insulated, and you know where your water shut-off valve is in your building in case the unfortunate happens and a pipe bursts.
10. Use Lights And Security Cameras
Theft and shoplifting aren’t just a winter occurrence; however, criminals don’t take breaks during the winter. To add to this, longer, darker nights when your business is closed can tempt thieves to break onto your property.
Make sure always to keep the exterior of your store lit up around the clock. You should also constantly have monitored surveillance cameras and an alarm system working at all times. If you want to go the extra mile, you can post signage warning potential thieves that your security cameras are watching them.
Business Winter Safety Tips: Commercial Insurance
At the end of the day, protecting your business from cold weather and the damage it can cause is critical to ensuring you and your employees remain safe. Our business winter safety tips will help provide some valuable insight into ways you can make that a reality. As always, the most critical aspect of running a business is having the proper insurance to back you up in case of an emergency. This is where Commercial Insurance comes into play. Please feel free to contact us today or request a quote using the form below.
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