How to Keep your Technology Office Safe and Hazard-Free When you run a business in the technology industry, you’ll know how difficult it can be to ensure your office is safe and hazard-free, what with wires everywhere and potential fire and other risks. In this article, we’ll walk you through some of the rules and regulations around hazards and health and safety in your office, and what you can do to adhere to these. We’ll also suggest a few ways to ensure your technology industry office is both functional and safe for employees and clients alike, without it losing its style.

How to Keep your Technology Office Safe and Hazard-Free

When you run a business in the technology industry, you’ll know how difficult it can be to ensure your office is safe and hazard-free, what with wires everywhere and potential fire and other risks.

In this article, we’ll walk you through some of the rules and regulations around hazards and health and safety in your office, and what you can do to adhere to these. We’ll also suggest a few ways to ensure your technology industry office is both functional and safe for employees and clients alike, without it losing its style.

Health and Safety Laws Around Hazards

There are several different health and safety laws you must adhere to when it comes to hazards in your office.

For example, you need to ensure that every area which your employees and clients have access to – including stairs, floors, corridors and more – don’t have any obstructions or hazards that could trip people over, such as cables and wires.

This ensures that everyone in your office can be safe, without running the risk of tripping or falling over.

These laws should be adhered to at all times as, if an accident does happen and it was due to a failing to remove hazards in your office, you will be liable.

Regularly Decluttering your Office

One of the ways you can ensure you’re adhering to the health and safety laws for your office is by regularly decluttering your space, and strongly advising your employees to do the same for their workstations.

Regularly decluttering can actually have a significant impact on employees’ moods, too, as studies have found that people work better with a tidy workstation.

In addition, doing this helps ensure that there aren’t too many items on desks and on the floor, which means there will be less hazards around.

Dealing with Loose Wires

In a technology office, there will naturally be some loose wires around, with all the equipment being used.

It’s important to make sure you’re continuously checking your office for loose and unplugged wires and tidying them away when you see them.

You can also train employees to do this, as wires can quickly become a trip hazard if left unattended, and sometimes, they could be even more dangerous if they’re live.

So, every time you or your employees notice a loose wire in your technology office, it’s a good idea to tuck it out of the way or remove it from the area.

Having a No-Drinks Policy around Technology

In technology offices, it’s generally best practice to ensure that food and drinks are consumed in a separate area from workstations and technology.

As everyone knows, fluids and electricity aren’t a good match, so it’s never worth risking spillages.

This means creating a comfortable and fully-functional kitchen room, in which employees can cook, make and consume drinks, and relax. That way, employees won’t have to miss out on relaxing with a beverage – they just won’t be able to do so at their desk.

Regularly Maintaining Equipment

Another thing that’s essential when it comes to keeping your technology office safe and hazard-free is regularly maintaining your equipment.

This could mean several things.

Firstly, it’s important to check and maintain electrical systems to ensure there aren’t any faults. Down the line, this will mean you can see risks and nip problems in the bud early on.

In addition, maintaining and updating your technology systems is essential, as it’s important to stay as up to date as possible, as a technology company.

By checking and maintaining your equipment and technology regularly, you can notice issues early on, meaning operations won’t be slowed down while you’re rectifying problems.

Plumbing Maintenance

In technology offices, plumbing is incredibly important. This is because, if anything goes wrong and a spill or leak occurs, this could seriously damage your technology and equipment, which could potentially cause a fire risk or other emergencies.

For this reason, it’s always a good idea to regularly check and maintain your plumbing system and your drainage, to ensure everything is working properly.

As we mentioned above with your electricity system, if you keep checking your plumbing, this means you’re more likely to notice and be able to deal with a problem early on in the process.

Emergency Protocol

As with any office, in your technology office, you should have a protocol and system in place to ensure employees know what to do if a fire breaks out, or if some other type of emergency happens.

In technology offices, this is even more important. You’ll have lots of technology and equipment in your space, which can pose more of a risk to employees should anything go wrong.

Having a proper emergency exit plan and a list of things employees should do in case of an emergency is a good place to start.

Fire Safety

Following on from the above point, fire safety is a massive part of health and safety in your office.

This involves everything from having proper fire equipment in your office such as extinguishers and alarms, to having designated employees who can act as fire stewards. These people are there to usher people out of the office and help them gather in your chosen assembly point.

Fire drills are also important, to ensure your employees know what to do, which way to go and where to gather if a real fire should break out.

Training Employees

There are several ways to train employees to ensure they understand and can comply with the health and safety rules and regulations in your office.

Having important information up around the office is a good start. For example, remind employees about the fire safety protocol with leaflets they can pick up and read.

In addition, when new employees join your company, as part of their onboarding, it’s beneficial to make them go through a few health and safety courses to ensure they understand how they can adhere to the rules in your office, and how they can uphold the same standards as their colleagues.

First-Aid Training

Another type of training you can offer employees is First-Aid Training. In fact, every office should have at least one first-aid trained member of staff, to ensure that someone is able to help in the event of an emergency.

This is just a minimum expectation, though, and many offices provide First-Aid Training to the employees who are interested in it – and the more, the better.

First-Aid Training is an essential part of making sure that your technology office is a safe and healthy place to be for your employees.

Checking In with Employees

Once you’ve implemented all these health and safety strategies and protocols, it’s important to continue to check in with employees to make sure they feel as safe as possible in your office.

Especially if you don’t spend that much time in the office, it’s essential to understand the experience of the people who spend the majority of their week there, as these people will know what really goes on in terms of health and safety.

This way, if there are any issues employees are having with what you’ve implemented, you’ll be able to find out and make the necessary changes.

Keeping your Technology Office Safe and Hazard-Free

Above, we’ve explored some of the ways in which you can keep your technology office as safe, healthy and hazard-free as possible, not only for your employees but also for your clients and other visitors in your office.

Adhering to health and safety rules is essential to running a successful technology company with satisfied employees who want to keep coming into the office, as well as happy clients who enjoy their experience at your office.

As your office will always be a representation of your company, if you prioritise health and safety at all times, this will reflect positively on your business.