Top tips for dealing with winter weather
Wintery weather can cause disruption for any organisation, that’s why it’s so important to create a cold weather plan.
By taking sensible precautions, organisations can minimise the impact on their employees and their services. Here, we discuss a few ways you can prepare for winter whilst protecting your staff.
How to protect property
For any organisation, severe weather will impact on the ability to deliver services. It also increases risks around health and safety for employees, contractors and the public, including frozen pipes, dangerous road conditions and a greater potential for slips and trips.
Rain, snow, wind and freezing temperatures all put extra strain on a property and increase the likelihood of damage. During winter months, it is advisable to increase the frequency of property inspections and ensure everything is in a good state of repair. Extra attention should be paid to at-risk areas, such as gutters, chimneys, roofs and pipes carrying water.
Frozen pipes are a particular risk during cold weather, and an escape of water can cause major damage to a property. To avoid freezing pipes, simple measures can make a big difference. For example, lagging pipes in areas exposed to the cold (such as outside and in roof spaces), keeping heating systems at an ambient temperature, ensuring sprinkler systems are properly maintained and the sprinkler room kept warm.
It is also important that key staff know the location of the building’s stopcocks, so that water can be quickly shut off if a leak does occur.
Protect against slips and trips
Fewer daylight hours, wet leaves, and the potential for snow and ice all contribute to a rise in slips and trips during autumn and winter.
Organisations owe a legal duty of care to employees and the public when they are on their premises. As an increased potential for slips and trips is foreseeable during winter, it is vital that steps are taken to minimise any incidents and avoid potential liability.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has issued detailed guidance for organisations, which includes activities such as removing leaves, responding to weather forecasts, and gritting key access routes.
- Protect staff
It is important to assess how cold weather conditions might affect your staff and take reasonable steps to manage this.- For indoor workers, it is recommended that the workplace stay above a minimum of 16 degrees Celsius. In freezing conditions, maintaining this temperature can place additional strain on boilers and heating systems, increasing the chance of breakdown. It is therefore important to service heating equipment regularly and ensure it is capable of handling prolonged cold snaps.
- For outdoor workers, including those gritting or clearing leaves at your premises, some extra considerations should be taken. These include the provision of suitable personal protective equipment (PPE), providing a warm area for rest breaks, having a means of summoning help if working alone, and briefing staff on the health effects of cold weather and any symptoms to look out for.
- Having a plan
It is important that organisations have a winter plan in place in plenty of time and is fully trained out, so that staff are fully aware of what to do when conditions worsen. As Britain braces itself for some severe winter weather, we hope these tips provide you with useful information on how best to respond. We also recommend that existing business continuity and incident response plans are reviewed, especially as key people may take time off or be unavailable over the winter holidays.- For more information, please speak to your local Zurich contact.
