You can prevent most slip injuries and it needn't cost you a penny...

As a H&S Manager you will be aware that slips are a problem in many businesses. Not as high profile as fire safety, or electrical safety or falls from heights - but slips still represnt the biggest cause of serious injuries at work and cost the UK over £1 Billion each year not including the cost to the NHS.

You can prevent most slip accidents

If your floors are safe enough for the purpose they are being used then you will have very few slip accidents and even fewer injuries.

Some floors are just an accident waiting to happen, but you don't need to wait. If you know the slip risk of each floor and how it is being used then you can make informed decsions that will significantly lower the slip risk for staff and customers.

Reducing slip risk can be free

Measuring and managing slip risk needn't cost you a penny and it could even save your company money. As a health and safety manager you will have a quality manual that specifies safety measures for fire safety, electrical safety, use of ladders etc. You should have the same level of practical safety precautions for managing slip risk. Your safety manual should specify how and when to test slip risk of floors and what levels of slip resistance are advised for different situations.

Practical easy steps to floor safety

Your safety manual should specify levels of slip resistance for each area of flooring in your business. For example a pool surround clearly needs greater wet slip resistance than an area of office floor that is never wet. A factory floor producing powders may require testing for slip resistance with dry contaminants. if a floor is to be laid or repaired and it is near the entrance to your building then you should know what level of slip resistance that floor will need. If you know how safe each floor needs to be then your flooing supplier or maintenance team can check the floor when it is laid or repaired. Simple.

Slips are the biggest cause of serious accidents - because we have not understood how to prevent slip risk...

Slips are the biggest cause of serious accidents because it is the one area of H&S that until now has been poorly understood and poorly managed. Some new floors are laid with no appreciation of what slip resistance the floor wil require. A fafactory floor is different from a shower room is different from a library floor. Each will have different needs for wet/dry slip resistance.

SlipAlert saves you time and makes it easy when you are specifying, buying or installing a new floor.

When you are buying a new floor it should be safe for the intended purpose. Until now, it has been difficult and time consuming to source a safe floor. Floors have been specified in units you cannot measure at installation. Now you can specify the level of slip resistance you need and quickly test the floor with SlipAlert when its installed.

Talk to Jenny at SlipAlert LLP if you'd like help understanding the different floor specifications and what they mean.

Slip Prevention measures that actually stop slips

With SlipAlert, it is now easy to put in place slip prevention measures in your business that will stop slip accidents and prevent slip injuries. It is easy to test new floors or changes to floors. It is now easy to monitor slip risk and to monitor the effectiveness of your floor cleaning.

Different situations make different demands upon the new floor that you require

When you specify or buy a new floor, you want the right type of flooring that is safe. A pool surround must be safe when wet and it must be easy to clean to prevent a build up of body fats. A sports hall will mainly be dry but you will need a floor that is safe with trainers, bare feet and possibly socks, and you will need a floor that stays reasonably safe if there is dust or water on the floor.