Winter Safety For Employees & Customers

As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to keep your team members and customers safe in the winter. While you can’t stop people from dressing improperly or driving dangerously, you can take several steps to help protect the people who work at and visit your business.

This guide will help. We’re business owners in Winnipeg, one of the coldest cities on the planet; these tips are tried and true in weather that dips below -50℃. Following them will help you improve the comfort and safety of your employees and customers. 

Identifying Common Winter Hazards

Before the season starts—or early on in the season—take the time to identify the winter hazards that might affect your business. These will vary depending on the nature of your business, but might include:

• Inspecting your property for areas that are likely to develop ice

• Checking your lighting schedule to ensure there’s sufficient illumination once the sun starts going down earlier

• Noting areas where snow build-up would cause issues for accessibility

• Considering employees and customers who might have to travel a long way to reach your business and how inclement weather could affect their travel

• Thinking about which employees and customers may be outside and considering how you can keep them warm

• Considering pipes and other infrastructure that may be exposed to the cold, as well as thinking about whether or not your properties will be warm enough

• Going over your insurance plan to ensure that you have the proper liability and property protections in place

This is just a small list of the things you can consider—cold, ice, and snow can all create hazards, from potential slip-and-fall scenarios to exhaustion from cold stress. Identifying potential risks is the first step to decreasing them. 

Preventive Measures for Slips, Trips, and Falls

There are, essentially, two different methods of preventing slip-and-fall accidents in the winter:

• Warning people about slippery areas

• Preventing slippery surfaces from developing and mitigating their impact

The first step is simple enough: Put up signs to warn people of icy or slippery conditions. These can be “Caution: Wet Floor” signs inside your building near fall hazards or permanent signs on walkways, parking lots, and other surfaces that are prone to developing ice.

Preventing and reducing slippery areas is more involved—but well worth the effort. Slip-and-fall accidents can damage your reputation and lead to costly liability suits—and no one wants their team members or guests to get injured! Here are some of the steps you can take:

• Hire a professional snow-clearing service to remove snow and ice. Bulger Brothers can help. 

• Use ice melt and sand to melt ice and create traction along at-risk areas.

• Place mats in the entryway of your business so people can wipe their boots.

• Equip your team members with ice grippers or spikes for their boots if they’re doing work in icy areas.

• Equip your fleet with winter tires.

Those are just some of the steps you can take to prevent slip-and-fall accidents; as always, the actions you’ll take will depend heavily on the nature of your business. 

Tackling Cold Stress

Ice and snow aren’t the only hazards in the winter; the cold weather can be deadly. Working in the cold may take more energy than working in warm conditions; severe cold can also lead to frostbite, hypothermia, and other issues.

Here are a few winter safety tips to keep your employees safe when cold weather hits:

• Try to schedule work in exposed areas on warmer days.

• Make a warm space for outdoor workers to take breaks in—have coffee and other hot beverages available, as well as food rich in carbohydrates.

• Ensure that people working in cold areas are adequately dressed—have backup jackets, sweaters, and other warm clothes available.

• Have a first aid kit at the ready in case of accidents—people under cold stress may be more likely to injure themselves.

• Consider purchasing portable heating systems for cold but enclosed spaces.

• Keep employees in groups of at least two so they can monitor each other.

• Check on your employees regularly.

Many of these tips can also be useful for keeping guests who may have suffered from cold stress warm; have hot beverages and warm spaces available for anyone who needs them!

Ensuring Safe Winter Commutes and Driving

Severe winter weather and car accidents—these two things, tragically, go hand in hand. Freezing temperatures and low visibility make for a dangerous combination, and winter driving on icy roads can be almost impossible. Here are a few steps you can take to keep your employees safe:

• Have a plan of action for days where winter driving will be difficult—know in advance whether or not your business will operate on those days.

• Take note of which of your employees lives outside of the city or in areas that are not plowed as quickly. Ensure that you have options for those employees, from telecommuting to taking the day off.

• Put an emergency kit in every vehicle in your fleet.

• When there’s the risk of a winter storm, track it carefully and make arrangements to give people who cannot drive home a place to stay.

Following the steps above can help make driving safer in the winter months.

Conclusion

When you clear snow and ice to eliminate potential hazards, ensure that your employees and customers have places to warm up from cold stress, and create a plan of action for when inclement weather makes driving impossible, you’ll be doing your part to keep your employees and customers safe during the winter months.

Following these steps will make your business more efficient in the winter—and keep people safer. Let us be the first to thank you for keeping winter safety in mind!