Are Your Premises Unsafe? How To Protect Yourself Against…

Business premises aren’t always safe. In fact, they can be downright dangerous. Productive activities increase risks above and beyond home environments. 

For this reason, business owners must be vigilant. You can’t take a backseat. 

In this post, we take a look at what premises liability is, and how you can prevent it. Instances in which employees become sick or injure themselves because of your place of work can set you back. If you don’t have the right cover (or you fail to follow insurers’ protocols), you can wind up in serious financial trouble. 

Unfortunately, too many businesses don’t understand just how culpable they are. They don’t realise that they are responsible for practically every injury and illness that occurs on their premises. 

What Is Premises Liability? 

Premises liability is legal responsibility for anyone who steps inside of it. That could be employees, customers, clients, senior managers – even owners. Even people trespassing on your property have protection under premises liability laws. 

Interestingly, it is usually the company that needs to bear the burden, not the landlord renting the unit. That’s because the owner of the building generally doesn’t determine its function. As the provider of capital, they take a step back and allow the business operator to adapt the premises to their needs. 

Take Elon’s Musk’s car factory in Fremont, California. That building is good for just about anything, from warehousing to rocket production. According to liability law, Mr. Musk decides precisely how he will use the building and, therefore, he becomes responsible for any injuries that occur. 

Landlords have relatively few responsibilities. They must make sure that the building will continue standing and doesn’t, in itself, pose any hazards. But they are not responsible for slips, trips and falls that occur on the premises. That’s a problem for the renting firm. 

Of course, your business might own the property in which it operates. In that case, you’re fully liable, on the hook for any expenses relating to injury, including those caused by the building itself. 

You can, in some cases, fight premises liability cases. However, the cost of doing so is often tremendous. Lawyer fees are high, so the best policy in most situations is prevention. What’s more, if somebody does seriously hurt themselves on your property, it can damage your reputation. And while insurance companies will cover legal costs, they don’t cover the price of reputational damage. That’s yours to bear. 

With that said, the best approach is prevention. You need to do whatever it takes to keep people safe on your property and prevent injuries. But how, exactly?

Provide Warnings

The first thing you’ll want to do is provide warnings whenever you can. For instance, if a colleague is mopping the floor, put up a wet floor sign. If you don’t have any of these at your premises yet, order half a dozen. They’re cheap and can protect you against liability. 

You can also verbally warn people. Some businesses, for instance, will have a colleague stand over a spill until clean-up teams arrive. This way, they protect customers. 

You can also include warnings in certain places. For instance, you can plaster warning signs over all private areas of your premises, telling people to keep out. Besides offering basic security, warning signs also alert people on your premises to potential dangers. 

Inspect

Everyone in your organisation should regularly inspect your premises for signs of degradation, not just managers or safety officials. That’s because each person has a stake in maintaining a safe working environment.

Constant vigilance sounds like it might impact productivity – and occasionally, it will. However, when staff are aware of their surroundings, they generally notice problems faster. 

Generally, getting employees to spend a little time reporting issues they find has substantial rewards. Big payouts are far less likely when you nip problems in the bud before they truly emerge. 

Correct Quickly

Lastly, if you do notice that something’s not quite right, you should correct the issue quickly. Don’t allow it to fester, putting people at risk. Eventually, someone is going to get hurt. 

Again, teach employees to be more proactive. Encourage them to clean up a spill if they see one, not leave it to other members of the team. Likewise, if there is an issue with snow and ice on walkways, put policies in place so that people know precisely what to do in these situations. 

Correcting problems quickly should be your top priority. If you fail to do so, you are putting your enterprise at a much higher risk.

Monitor Continuously

You also need to monitor your premises continually for potential hazards. Gas monitors, for instance, are essential in virtually all premises. These tell you whether your appliances are leaking potentially dangerous gases into the environment. 

Also, be sure to set up basic CCTV so that you can see whenever anyone unauthorised enters the premises. Policies like this not only protect your stock, but also your people as well. 

Perform Maintenance

Failing to perform adequate maintenance work on your premises is another source of problems. As a firm, it is your legal responsibility to reduce or eliminate hazards to the extent that is possible using current technology. 

Performing maintenance on your buildings helps to reduce property defects that might cause injury. For instance, it allows you to fix faulty spotlights that aren’t providing your colleagues with sufficient illumination. You should also focus on making all areas of your premises safe. Trip hazards or dangerous machinery can lead to injury which affects the life of people who work for you. 

Wrapping Up

Liability is a serious issue for businesses. Companies that don’t take steps to mitigate it can fail, even if they have a thriving customer base. Loss of money through compensation and legal fees soon mounts up. 

Getting liability insurance, though, only offers partial protection. The main concern should be preventing injuries in the first place. When people get hurt at your place of work, it reflects poorly on your brand, even if you are in the right. 

It’s Time To Make The Most Of The Digital…

If there’s one thing that many of us knew but that the last couple of years have proven, it’s that digital technology is an absolute godsend for modern businesses. These years of living under the pandemic have absolutely proven just how vital it is to be able to run your business in the digital world. However, a lot of business owners are still struggling to shift their mindset to one where the digital side of their business is the place where they put most of their attention. With that in mind, here are some ways that you can start really making the most of the digital age.

Virtual services

You would be surprised at just how many businesses that you interact with on a daily basis already use virtual services. Everything from virtual addresses to virtual receptionists are a fantastic way to not only keep your business functioning remotely but also to spread the workload out more evenly when you don’t have that many people working for you. Being able to reach a point where you can make the most of virtual services can be challenging, since it often requires a shift in how you think of your business. However, the benefits for just about any business can be absolutely enormous.

Social media

Social media have been an essential part of everyday life for over a decade and a half at this point which makes it so odd how many businesses still don’t seem to understand just how important it is. If you want to get the most out of your business, you need to be willing to leverage the unique advantages of social media as much as possible. Social media allows you to not only more effectively promote your business and keep in touch with customers, but it allows you to connect with those customers online in a way that was previously only really possible in a face to face setting.

Remote working

The pandemic proved one thing pretty conclusively: remote working is absolutely a viable option for the vast majority of businesses. Sure, there are some businesses where you need people on-site at all ties. But if you can embrace remote working in your business, you absolutely should. It provides both you and your employees with significantly greater flexibility which not only improves morale across your entire business but it also has a huge positive impact on overall productivity. Sure, you no longer need to have your employees working remotely, but providing them with that option is always a good idea.

None of this is to say that you need to completely abandon any of the old school, brick and mortar elements of your business. The reality is that some businesses simply need physical locations in order to function. However, even those businesses can find a huge amount of benefit in embracing the digital age and finding ways to turn it to their advantage. It’s all about finding ways to augment your existing business. You don’t have to turn the entire thing upside down.

Creating Incredible Video Content

There is something extraordinary about written content, a blog or an article that entices the reader to keep devouring the words on the page. Just as there is something so stunning about a photograph that looks familiar but is edited to make it look astounding. 

But there is one piece of creative content that seems to stand apart from the rest. 

A beautifully edited video offers something to the consumer that the written word and even photos do not.

Something so wonderful about watching a video is that you feel like you are a part of the action as a viewer. 

The person filming and discussing a specific topic draws you into the moment. And if you aren’t sure why so many people are creating content right now, it’s that 73% of all online traffic was video content in 2020.

So if you feel like it’s time for you to enter the world of video content creation, here are some tips to help you make the most of it. 

Plan

When you are creating written content, you tend to have a draft, and that draft will be the working piece that gets manipulated into the final edit. You will often have a list of topics that you like to cover within that written content. 

When it comes to your video, you will need to be even more specific about what you want to share with your audience and what you need them to take away. How would you like to communicate, what tone of voice will you use? You need to plan your goals for the video carefully.

And pay attention to your scripting; you can even hire a professional scriptwriter to get this bit correct.

Background 

In the early days of YouTube and other video content creation, often the background was the person’s bedroom, and often it wasn’t very glamorous. The further into the 2000s, we get the more beautiful the experience becomes when it comes to vlogging, anything interesting in the background that’s going on is part of the video. 

The background in your videos will help set the tone for the rest of it. So if you are planning on creating an ASMR video, for example, everything should be relaxing, but if the background is quite messy, that can draw the viewer’s attention away from you.

Equipment 

The type of vlogging equipment you choose is going to be based on your budget and preference. At a minimum, you are going to need a camera and microphone, and some good lighting. If you are recording in the home, you can set up a lighting system that ensures the highest quality recording.

Remember that the cheapest plug-in microphone might not give you the sound quality that you need. So, where possible, go for a higher-end microphone. 

You might start with a smaller lightweight camera or even use your mobile phone. But over time, you’re probably going to want to become more professional and upgrade your vlogging equipment. 

Give yourself a few months after you initially start making content before you upgrade any of your hardware.

One of the most important things for you to create great video content is enjoying yourself. Because if you are not, it is easy to pick up on the camera, and people will have no reason to like, share or follow. 

Are you hoping to do a general overhaul of your content? Read this: Top Tips To Help Improve Your Content.