Besides serving delicious food and beverages, employee safety is central to the restaurant industry. With slips and falls being the top cause of accidents in restaurants, hotels, and other public buildings, it’s important that restaurateurs and managers take floor safety seriously. By doing so, industry professionals can stay in the restaurant rather than at home recovering from an injury.
As the provider of concrete floor coatings Northern Virginia trusts, we want every establishment to put safety at the forefront of their business practices. If you are a restaurant owner or manager looking to protect customers and employees alike, then use this guide to learn more about the importance of floor safety.
What are the main floor safety risks in the food industry?
Restaurants are fast-paced and dynamic environments. This means that many risk factors can slip through the cracks. The following are some of the main factors that restaurant owners and managers should be aware of:
Spills: When an employee spills a liquid or food product on the ground, someone walking by quickly could easily slip and fall.
Floor Obstacles: Restaurants can be crowded environments. A misplaced object on the floor could quickly become a hazard.
Improper Footwear: Your employee handbook likely has a strict dress code, but are your employees following it? Slippery shoes could cause workers to fall unexpectedly.
Slick Floor Materials: Especially if you have concrete flooring, this surface could be hazardous without the right concrete floor coatings to go along with it.
What can restaurant owners and managers do to prevent slip and fall accidents?
Prioritize Cleanliness: Update your cleaning checklist and procedure to hold employees accountable for cleaning up spills, obstacles, and other messes as soon as they happen.
Educate Employees: Hold safety training sessions for all new employees to teach them how their own clothing and behavior can affect everyone’s safety.
Use Commercial Floor Coatings: By applying the right coatings to your floors, you will make them less slick and safer to walk on.
For more information about restaurant safety, take the time to read through OSHA’s guidelines. As we strive to make the concrete floor coatings Northern Virginia can rely on, we also strive to make the workplace a safer place to be for all employees. By taking initiative to prevent slips and falls, restaurants can keep their employees working and grow their business.