Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) laws are primarily enforced to protect the health, safety, and welfare of workers and members of the public. Implementing WHS protocols is not optional – it’s a legal requirement. Mismanagement of WHS can lead to various consequences, including injuries, penalties and even potential imprisonment. That’s why some workplaces enforce stringent WHS protocols to ensure that they are compliant.

Keep Your Staff Safe while Meeting Your WHS Obligations

Commercial and industrial cleaning involves activities performed to create and maintain a clean, tidy, orderly and safe working environment. Effective commercial housekeeping does a lot more than keep the workplace clean and tidy. It enhances a company’s image and provides immediate observable proof of its commitment towards workplace safety and health (WHS). The following are specific WHS standards and procedures of responsible commercial and industrial housekeeping:

1. Excellent Quality Management Systems are the Bedrock

A company should establish a quality management system (QMS) that documents responsibilities, processes, and procedures for achieving quality WHS policies and objectives. As an employer or business manager, you should develop and implement a superior quality management system that is compliant to meet all current government and industry requirements.

2. Equipment and Supplies Must Be Both Safe and Effective

You want cleaning machines that come with features that make them effective at getting the job done effectively and quickly. You also want to ensure that the cleaning equipment you choose meets WHS requirements. Conquest Equipment supplies cleaning machines that can help workplaces meet their WHS obligations. For instance, many of our industrial floor sweepers and scrubbing machines have built-in safety features such as rear-view cameras and emergency breaks.

Furthermore, we offer a variety of customisation options that ensure superior safety when using our cleaning equipment, which includes those that can help to:

  • Improve visibility of the cleaning machine: These include blue distant lights, orange flashing beacons, high visibility safety stripes, and horns.
  • Improve visibility of the cleaning path: Operators must have a clear line of sight when cleaning dark environments. We offer LED headlights and reverse lights to help improve visibility of the cleaning path.
  • Improve operator and pedestrian protection: These include overhead guards, interlocking seatbelts, speed limiters, and bright yellow footwells to reduce trip hazards.
  • Reduce equipment impact damage: We also offer D-Rubber, which can be placed around the body of the cleaning machine to absorb impact in the event of a crash. It not only protects the machine from scratches and indentation, but it also provides extra protection for the operator.

3. Training to Meet and Exceed WHS Compliance

It’s crucial for new employees to be adequately trained in all aspects of their job. This is particularly true for those tasked with operating capital equipment, such as floor cleaning machines. Thorough training should also be delivered to operators when you acquire new cleaning equipment that they are unfamiliar with. There are various reasons why operator training is crucial, including:

  • It minimises the risk of workplace accidents: Training equips operators with skills to operate the machine safely, thus reduces the risk of workplace accidents and injuries.
  • It prevents machine damage: Proper training results in the reduction of workplace accidents, which not only prevents operators from harm, but it also prevents cleaning equipment from damage.
  • It reduces costs: Reduction of workplace accidents also minimises costs that result from workplace injuries, such as downtime, workers’ compensation and other insurance claims. It also reduces costs associated with equipment repair or replacement.
  • It prevents penalties and prosecutions: Since the risk of workplace accidents and injuries will be greatly minimised, there will be no serious incidents that will lead to potential investigations and subsequent prosecutions by state-based government WHS agencies.
  • It leads to increased reliability: Reduced risk of workplace accidents means that equipment will run smoothly and your employees’ productivity will not be harmed.

Different challenges mean different solutions

Each site is unique, so the solutions needed by one site may not necessarily suit another. Therefore, it’s recommended that you have a no-obligation chat with Conquest Equipment to arrange an assessment of your site. A site assessment at your facility will help to determine the customisations that can enable you to achieve your business goals.