One of the most important things to do when running a business is to safeguard your customers, including by making sure that they are not injured while on your premises.
Throughout Australia, thousands of people are hurt in slip and trip accidents every year. Slips and trips can be a result of a number of different things, including spillages, inappropriate floor covering choices, and poor lighting. The resulting injuries can range from minor cuts, bruises and dislocations, to much more serious fractures and even brain injuries.
Given the potential for costly legal claims, minimising the risk of your customers being injured in such a fashion is crucial to ensuring the ongoing success of your business. One of the best ways of implementing this protection is by arranging for professional slip resistance testing.
What is slip resistance testing?
There are numerous different types of slip resistance testing which can be arranged, depending on your particular business premises. These include:
- Wet pendulum slip test, which assesses the risk of slipping on a wet floor.
- Dry floor friction test, which checks whether the floor meets suitability requirements in dry conditions (both with and without additional factors such as floor polish).
- Barefoot ramp test – a fairly self-explanatory test which assesses how well an unshod foot will manage on a given surface and at a certain incline.
- Oil wet ramp test – which determines at what incline the floor is excessively slippery.
- Accelerated wear slip testing – which assesses the ongoing slip resistance of certain types of flooring.
After the most appropriate type of slip testing has been conducted at your business premises, you will be provided with an assessment of the results, and recommendations on how to improve the safety of your building for your customers.
What sort of action might be recommended?
Potential recommendations which may be made after your independent slip testing services relate to improving floor markings, fixing uneven floor surfaces or poor lighting, and focusing on your cleaning regimen so that spillages and other potential slip hazards are cleaned up as soon as possible.
While there is no way to guarantee that no injuries will ever occur at your business premises, by arranging for professional slip resistance testing, and implementing the recommendations put forward by the team, you can help to minimise the risks and keep your customers as safe as possible.
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