Keeping your facility safe for employees and anyone else who walks through is very important. As a facilities and operations manager, it's your duty to make that safety a priority.
One area that often gets neglected is the floor, but it's one of the most important spaces to protect. People and machinery cross that floor every day, sometimes hundreds or thousands of times.
When the floor is in bad shape, people are at a higher risk of injury. If you see that there are problems with the floor, getting them fixed right away provides more protection and peace of mind.
Understanding what you should look for is the first step toward keeping your facility's floor in good shape and your employees safe. Here's what you'll want to consider.
Maintaining and Updating Safety Markings (OSHA)
The safety markings on the floor of your facility are required by OSHA, and if they're faded, coming off, or incorrect, you're putting your employees at risk.
You could also be in serious violation of OSHA regulations, which could result in fines and other penalties. The best thing to do is ensure these markings are always accurate and updated.
If markings start to fade or stickers or decals are peeling, replacement should be the main goal, and it should be done as soon as possible. That way, you're following regulations and protecting employees.
Inspecting the Flooring on a Regular Schedule
If you haven't been inspecting the floor regularly, it's time to set a schedule and start doing that. You can also appoint people in your department to inspect the floor for you and report back on what they find.
Depending on how much the floor is used in particular areas, it might be important to inspect more in specific parts of the facility and not as frequently in others.
That's especially important if there are hazardous or dangerous products that could cause a lot of harm if they were spilled or if there's heavy equipment moving across that part of the floor on a frequent basis.
Taking Employee Complaints Seriously for Safety
Employee complaints and comments about the state of the floor are very important, and you want to take them seriously. If there are missing markings or tripping hazards, for example, those should be priorities for correction.
Because employees are the ones who spend the most time walking or operating machinery on that floor, they're the ones who know whether it's in good shape or not.
Even if it's been recently inspected by you or someone else in your department, it's still important to listen to the worries employees have and check out anything they're concerned about. Keeping employees safe is a priority and not something you want to ignore.
Fixing and Replacing Damaged or Cracked Floors
Naturally, any damaged or cracked floors should be repaired right away. But, in the meantime, they need to be clearly marked and should be cordoned off if they're serious hazards.
Then, you'll want to make arrangements for their repair during a time when the facility is closed or less busy to avoid too much disruption to normal business operations.
Concrete coatings are generally the way to go when it comes to repairing or replacing flooring that's damaged. Because your facility sees so much foot and machinery traffic, you want to be sure your floor is as durable as possible.
Settling for less can be a recipe for disaster and can seriously affect the safety of your facility and its employees. With the right flooring, though, you'll have protection for employees and create additional peace of mind, as well.
Working With Trusted Professionals for Maximum Benefit
For the best protection and safety of any facility, you want to make sure you're working with professionals you can trust. Industrial concrete coatings are strong, durable, and effective, but they need to be applied the right way.
When you choose to work with a company that applies and installs these coatings, you can have a facility floor that looks great and doesn't put your employees and others who come through it at risk.
You'll also protect the tires of any hand trucks, carts, or heavy equipment because they won't be running over cracks, chips, and sharp edges that could damage them over time.
As a facilities and operations manager, the safety and protection of the facility and its employees is a top priority, and concrete coatings make handling any issues much easier.