The British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM) has launched its latest Good Practice Guide to Winter Maintenance. The guide is the latest in the BIFM’s Good Practice Guide series and has been authored by Jason Petsch, CEO of GRITIT. The guide is intended to provide facilities management professionals with practical advice to help support them in the development of better working practices around winter maintenance, covering all aspects from creating a plan and reducing risk to driving safely. This will help contribute to wider business continuity.
Research carried out by BIFM and GRITIT revealed that more than 30 percent of UK organizations fail to plan for the winter period, and of those that do plan ahead, 85 percent were not planning to do anything differently to 2012, despite UK Plc receiving an overall £318 million bill as a result of business closures due to snow that year.
Author, Jason Petsch, said:” We know that facilities managers are becoming increasingly aware of the growing impact of the risks of lost revenue, reputation and productivity resulting from accident liability
claims or shut-downs caused by snow and ice. We’re delighted to be collaborating with BIFM again and supporting the industry with the timely update of this much-read winter risk management guide. Now our winters are more unpredictable we need to be even smarter and well prepared. We’ve drawn on our own experience and learning to add two new sections on making the best use of technology and specific skills and training for the unique demands of winter. The updated guide will be a comprehensive and practical reference for facilities management professionals to ensure they have a robust winter maintenance plan in place and are not left vulnerable in the coming season.”
Advice in the guidance includes:
- Ensure your winter safety procedures are integrated into a recognisable health and safety management system such as OHSAS18001 or HS(G)65 Successful Health and Safety Management.
- Send the winter maintenance plan to your insurer or broker, both to ensure it covers all the areas required in the policy and also to see whether it can positively impact the organization’s premiums. An effective winter maintenance plan should allow an insurer to deny any injury claim.
- If an accident does occur as a result of snow or ice, conduct a full accident investigation to identify the root cause of the incident, review whether the procedures in the plan were sufficient, and demonstrate that you did all that is reasonably expected of you.
- Maintain records that show you have delivered your risk management plan and keep these for at least three years.
The Good Practice Guide to Winter Maintenance is free to download to all BIFM members as part of their member benefits and £19.99 for non-members.
