Avoiding trips and slips in a clean office

Many office accidents could have been avoided by simple, inexpensive measures. If there is a blind corner within the office, an easy and inexpensive way to reduce the possibility of injury is to install a mirror made to deal specifically with that problem. Someone coming around the corner can glance up at the mirror and see if there is someone coming from either side of the blind corner, thus removing the hazard of running into someone with coffee or any number of other dangerous items. In your lunch room, it is a good idea to have a large, water absorbent mat in front of the kitchen sink, this reduces the possibility of spills and any resultant slips and falls, mats are inexpensive and a perfect solution to this type of problem. There are all sorts of chair mats available for purchase, some are very cheap and some are expensive. When you are looking to purchase chair mats for your employees, set one on the ground and move your foot around on it. Some of them can be quite slippery even dry. You'll want to avoid the more slippery mats, even though it might make it easier for the chair to move around, it will also raise the possibility of an employee slipping. Clutter is responsible for a lot of accidents in the office. A good way to avoid liability is to keep all kinds of clutter off the floor and out of walkways. Get rid of excess furniture and supplies that you will never use. Keep boxes of files off the floor and put you copy paper boxes under a table, in a cabinet or in a cupboard. If you have areas where there is a hard floor surface, you may want to restrict beverages of any kind from that area. When cleaning hard floor surfaces, make sure that you either cordon off the area or you put up caution signs explaining that the floor is slippery.

It is a good idea to take a walk around your office once a day and take a good look. Examine all areas for any safety hazards and make sure any hazards that you see are taken care of immediately. The longer you leave the hazards in place, the more likely it is that you have left yourself open for liability and claims. In an office environment, people are often focused on something in their hands or in their mind rather than really watching where they're going. They are likely to back up and fall over something or simply walk right into something because of their inattention.

File rooms are infamous places of injury. Just by their very nature they have files, boxes and loose paper lying around. Work out a filing routine. Have set places to check out files and return files. If you put these places out of the way, you are less apt to have a problem. The person that handles your filing should not be allowed to put boxes or loose files on the floor during the course of their workday. Everything should be off the floor at all times. A filer could set a file on the floor in order to place another file, turn and step on the loose file, have the pages slip and sent them tumbling backwards causing an embarrassing moment at the least and serious injury at the other end of the scale.

This article was written by Tom Sangers on behalf of Claims for you who offer no win no fee compensation and other Accident Claims.