Is your maintenance department and personnel properly trained to use all of the equipment they have access to? If not, or you are not sure, now is the time to be sure.
With high turnover, it’s easy to end up with personnel who don’t have an ideal level of experience or training. Sometimes, an individual could be hired who had worked for another commercial facility doing a very similar type of job, but that doesn’t mean he or she receives proper training there.
When people don’t have the right skills, the risk of injuries increases.
Floor cleaning machines spin at an incredibly high rate of speed. If somebody is not doing the job properly, is not taking safety seriously, that’s a liability. It not only puts that maintenance personnel at risk, it could also put the general public or anyone else on the facility or using the facility at that time in harm’s way.
The more moving parts, the greater the risk.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a floor buffer, a stripper, a circular saw, a chainsaw, or an incredibly massive piece of factory equipment that has a hundred moving parts all contained within a 2 x 2 area. When there are more moving parts, there’s a greater risk involved. When those moving parts are sharper, the risk of serious injuries increases dramatically.
It’s important to realize that just because it is a ‘basic’ or ‘simple’ floor buffer, that doesn’t mean it is completely safe. Now might be a great time to sit down and determine who has been properly trained on the specific machines you have that they will be using. It could not only reduce injuries, it might also improve the finished results.