Guest post by Thomas T.
Ensuring water safety is one of those elementary, unavoidable parts of running a business. That being the case, it’s often easier said than done – just because so many businesses are getting it right every day, doesn’t mean that it’s easy.
There are, however, a number of simple steps that your business can take to ensure that you’re getting things right. From checking what your specific regulatory requirements are, to providing ongoing training to all relevant employees, here’s how to ensure water safety in your business.
Check your regulatory requirements
Every business will likely be faced by both more general, health and safety requirements, and industry-specific regulations. Before you start to work on your water safety strategy, it’s imperative that you’re totally aware of your duties, so that you’re able to operate at both the practical and bureaucratic standards expected of your business. In addition to more general research, this will often also require working with specialist advisors, to ensure that you’re not missing anything.
Risk assessments
All business premises are slightly different, and as a result, it’s impossible to take a one-size-fits-all approach to water safety. You’ll need to have a range of risk assessments carried out and renewed on a regular basis, so that you’re able to identify any hazards and areas for improvement in good time. Based on the findings of those assessments, you’ll likely have to make a series of changes to your water systems – some time-sensitive, others less so.
Strategic preventative measures
Water safety is obviously one of those things that has to be dealt with preventatively. If something like a waterborne disease outbreak occurs, this will generally be a result of a failure in your preventative approach.
All businesses with physical premises are required to have a Water Safety Plan in place. This is a broad framework that covers the maintenance of all water systems onsite, including monitoring those systems and having contingency plans in place should something go wrong. It’s generally necessary to work with a water hygiene specialist in order to develop a water safety plan that’s effective and compliant for your business.
Ongoing training
You can’t leave the responsibility for your water safety to water hygiene specialists – they’ll likely only come into your business a few times a year. Ultimately, it’ll be you and your employees who will need to put in place their recommendations and make practical day-to-day changes to how you operate.
This will likely necessitate ongoing training, so that employees are fully aware of their duties, and know how to spot and report potential issues that they might notice as they go about their day.
By taking these broad, strategic approaches to water safety in your business, you can work towards ensuring that there are no water safety-related incidents that happen under your watch. It may seem complicated, but by putting in place the safeguards mentioned above, and working with experienced professional providers, it’s a relatively simple issue to deal with. You’ll need to ensure that you involve your employees, to ensure that the people who have regular contact with the relevant water systems are capable of preventing potential issues well before they occur.
