The Leading News & Information Service For The Facilities, Workplace & Built Environment Community

The Cost of Slips by Not Planning for Your Commercial Winter Services

The Cost of Slips by Not Planning for Your Commercial Winter Services
19 October 2021
 

As colder weather approaches, what are the potential costs of neglecting maintenance planning for winter?

Dean Harvey, Co-Founder and Managing Director of AccuGrit outlines the implications of slips and trips on businesses.

AccuGrit prides itself on providing the most effective and transparent winter maintenance service in the gritting and snow clearing industry. With a wealth of experience, a 24/7 control room, functionality to audit 100% of visits all day every day via their YETI bespoke management software, and specialist teams in the field using robust Sno-Way machinery, organisations in the private and public sector across the UK choose AccuGrit as their trusted winter maintenance partner.

 

The Cost of Workplace Slips

 

Over the years, we have all seen the adverts pointing out the cost to businesses that don’t plan for slips and trips, but we often don’t appreciate the actual costs behind such situations. Unfortunately, as a winter maintenance services provider, we often hear some horror stories from business owners from circumstances where unexpected winter weather has caused an employee or visitor an injury. The resulting consequences were costly to both the finances and brand reputation.    

Therefore, with winter knocking on our door in the UK, now is a crucial time for businesses to successfully plan to protect themselves and their company from any wintery accidents by reviewing how well your facility is safeguarded from the risks of ice or snow and ensuring adequate prevention plans are in place. Businesses cannot afford (literally) to hope that ice and snow won’t affect them, and no one will claim against them or run the risk of employing substandard contractors or poorly trained staff to look after a vital service required.

But don’t let us preach; below are some quick facts to put the hazards into perspective and highlight the potential risks to your facility between October-April.

The numbers associated with slips look like this:

 

  • 300,000 people go to A&E each year due to slipping over.
  • £1bn + in claims per year due to these slips.

 

Some real case studies:

  • A man slipped at Tesco store breaking his hip in 2015, and successfully claimed £733K
  • A Prison Warden slipped on ice while patrolling the prison and breaks his leg. He successfully claimed £497K
  • The average cost of a slip claim in the UK is £10K

 

The past couple of years have been challenging for businesses with the pandemic, and the focus has been firmly (rightly so) on managing policies and procedures around COVID. However, with employees and visitors slowly returning to the workplace, retail parks and hospitals, other perils now come into focus again.

To have your facility protected by a fully accredited and audited winter maintenance services business, who possess a wealth of industry experience and expertise such as AccuGrit can bring your business a substantial amount of peace of mind. We pride ourselves on being innovative and will protect you every hour of the winter requires.  This is why we encourage everyone to plan, and we also recommend you have your site surveys conducted now so that we can implement a successful plan collaboratively.

Picture: a photograph of London in the snow, showing Tower Bridge in the background 

Article written by Dean Harvey | Published 19 October 2021

Share



Related Articles

How Much Could a Slip on Ice Cost Your Business?

This winter, the cost of a compensation claim after a slip on ice or snow – or the cost of closure should we see another Beast from the East – could devastate...

 Read Full Article
No Slip-ups With Campus Floors

The University of the West of Scotland’s new £110 million Lanarkshire campus has installed floors that convey the open, multi-functional and collaborative...

 Read Full Article
The Weather Cockpit Pilots Gritting Service

A winter gritting service provider have formed a partnership with UBIMET, a global provider of meteorological forecast systems and information, to bring customers The...

 Read Full Article
Battening Down The Barricades As The Beast Sits In Waiting

Carrying out weekly checks on automatic doors in the run-up to the UK’s envisaged worst winter in 70 years is being urged. Weather forecasters are predicting...

 Read Full Article
Sickness And Accidents Cost 4.3 Million Days

New research from Direct Line for Business has revealed workers took 4.3 million sick days between 2014 and 2017, with 568,000 being the result of an accident in the...

 Read Full Article
Hit The Road Jack Make Sure You Come Back

ENGIE is to provide a rapid EV charging network to help improve electric vehicle uptake in West Yorkshire and Mitie will be helping Aldi and Matalan customers return to...

 Read Full Article
Avoiding a Winter of Discontent

As the weather for the week ahead looks set to remind us that Winter has not departed - and may actually arrive full force - Andy Simpson of Ground Control writes about...

 Read Full Article
Christmas Shopping? Preparing for the Winter Months is Essential

It happens every year but the UK seems particularly prone to flapping rather than planning when the first snowflake falls     The Met Office has...

 Read Full Article