When it comes to facilities management there are an array of different responsibilities attaining to health and safety, specifically. With so many responsibilities it is essential to know who they lie with; in many instances they lie with multiple people. In many circumstances, health and safety responsibility can lie with a number of people at different levels and in the most general sense is the responsibility of all. However, there are specific responsibilities which fall to certain members of the team.
Health and safety management is an area of extreme importance and includes issues such as fire safety, water safety, electrical safety and asbestos management. All these areas, if mishandled, can have detrimental and lasting effects on the health and safety of customers, employees and businesses. Generally, in the UK the duty to comply with health and safety regulations would fall to the landlord or building owner/managing agent. In rented facilities, the lease agreement should specify whether the landlord or tenant is responsible.
Business Owner or Property Manager
Risk Assessments and Enforcement
Conducting risk assessments is essential to ensuring health and safety standards are being met in your facility. The purpose of a risk assessment is to adequately identify and then reduce or remove the hazard or risk through imposing specific safety measures and procedures. Staff must then be informed and trained in relation to these measures and procedures. There are five main areas which must have an adequate risk assessment relating to them: fire safety, electrical safety, hazardous substances, asbestos and working from height.
General Maintenance
The property manager or business owner is also responsible for ensuring general maintenance tasks are being completed. Whilst general maintenance may not seem as big of a health and safety concern as the aforementioned risk assessments it is still extremely important. Completely regular general maintenance tasks help to reduce and mitigate risks, from ensuring the floor is clean, to keeping general hygiene in check. General maintenance checks can be completed by employees but it is the responsibility of the property manager to ensure they happen.
Insurance
The business owner or property manager must ensure that their business or property has the adequate insurance at all levels should they require it.
Facilities Management Company
Resolving Issues
Employing a facilities management company ensures that your health and safety standards are being met, it means you can have a team at hand to perform planned maintenance checks and be available for reactive maintenance where necessary. The team will be responsible for resolving issues as identified by the business owner; both in terms of risk assessments and repairs. At MSL Property Care Services we can provide you with planned and reactive maintenance services as well as restoration to your facility after flood or fire damage, among an array of other services.
Environmental Safety Checks
By employing a facilities management team to carry about planned maintenance you can be secure in the knowledge that your facility is meeting all necessary requirements; they can also help ensure you are compliant with necessarily legislation attaining to your property. In addition to this they can help maintain hygiene and provide assistance in the result of damage to the facility from fire or flooding.
Employees
Safe Work at Height
As mentioned earlier, when undertaking risk assessments business owners must adequately perform a risk assessment for work at height; risks must be identified and then reduced or removed entirely. Employees have a responsibility to respect these risks and not perform work at height where this is an identified risk or take measures to reduce said risk as detailed by the risk assessment.
Compliance with Legal Requirements
Employees must be made aware of legal requirements by the business owner or property manager and then it is their responsibility to remain compliant with their legal requirements. They must follow requirements as set out by the property manager.
Reporting of Issues
Employees have a duty to report any potential issues attaining to health and safety in the workplace; this includes looking out for other employees, inspecting and maintaining equipment and then reporting any issues with equipment or the building in general and any potential risks.
Manage Risks
In situations where risks have been identified but could not be removed entirely, they will have been reduced; a reduced risk could mean it has been made clear to the employee that the risk is present and they now have the responsibility to adequately manage this risk. For example, when working on or around fragile surfaces or falling objects the employee must adhere to all guidelines set out in the risk assessment and manage said risk.
At MSL Property Care Services we offer comprehensive facilities management, including planned and reactive maintenance as well as compliance maintenance, restoration and hygiene services. For more information on health and safety responsibility in the workplace, or to find out how your company could benefit from a facilities management team contact MSL Property Care Services today.
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Call us today on 0333 1234450 or fill out the form on our contact page and we will get back to you.
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