It can be an exciting feeling to fulfill your dream of creating a business establishment. Regardless if it is the company headquarters, the warehouse, the manufacturing plant, or the office, you will be accomplishing a milestone in your entrepreneurial career. You might feel eager to start your operations, knowing that you will have plenty of work done more efficiently using the establishment.
However, you will have to be patient. Preparing the building for employee occupancy will require more time, but it will ensure that your workers enter a safe space for work. Disregarding the protocol could endanger your workforce’s health and safety, as well as get you in trouble with the law.
Before you let your employees inside the new business establishment, you must perform these procedures:
Job Hazard Analysis
Construction firms are trustworthy and reliable in terms of delivering your establishment. They will ensure that the building is safe for occupancy, even performing tests and drills to ensure that your workers will not have to worry about their health and safety. While it’s safe to assume that everything will be fine, you will have to avoid taking the risk.
Construction workers will not run around hallways, perform daily tasks, and use business equipment. Employees will find themselves in those situations. It might take a while before an accident happens because of the building design, making it critical to pay attention to every detail. Low beams might be an incident-prone area for tall employees. Exposed cables could be tripping hazards.
The lighting might be glaring enough to damage employees’ eyes in the long run. You will have to figure out the dangers inside the workplace, even if it delays your ideal occupancy date. Hire a few building inspectors to perform risk analysis. They might come with a team to help identify a list of potential hazards, allowing you to develop solutions critical for employee safety. The process will be necessary to help you establish safety rules, making the environment as safe as possible.
Facilities Inspection
Once you’ve taken out all the visible hazards, you can start inspecting the establishment. You will have pantries, restrooms, break rooms, and other amenities in the area. All of those facilities will be critical to making the business establishment occupancy-ready. Sinks, toilets, lights, and elevators should be functioning without a hitch. Doors and windows should have locks. The ventilation needs to be working correctly to avoid toxic inhalation.
Fortunately, you can hire a facilities inspection team to perform an initial inspection. They will be ensuring that the building is ready for occupancy. The team also needs to establish a checking routine to ensure that everything is working accordingly. You will receive reports on what facilities require maintenance or repairs, allowing you to dedicate a budget for it. The initial inspection will determine if the building is ready for occupancy, making it critical for the entire process.
Electrical Inspection
Business properties will require electrical installation, which is usually a part of the construction process. You will have to ensure that all outlets are working and that the electricity is running. However, you will be adding tons of equipment and devices to the establishment. Irresponsibility with plugging in multiple items in one socket could cause short circuits, threatening your employees’ lives.
You will also run the risk of destroying valuable equipment, making the entire thing more costly. However, electrocuting employees is a much worse scenario. It will be necessary to figure out if your electrical system can handle your task, making it critical to hire companies that perform electrical inspections. They will be testing and experimenting with the entire system and submitting a comprehensive electrical inspection report, providing you with the necessary responsible guidelines. The electricians could help you out even if your building is already occupied, but it will be better to know the dangers of potential faulty wires from the start.
Safety Drill Planning
It would be best if you were not leaving anything to chance, especially regarding your employees’ safety. State laws and protocols require every establishment, residential or commercial, to have emergency exit points. External threats like earthquakes and cyclones are out of your control, but you have to ensure that your employees stand a chance. Fires and toxic gas might also endanger them. The best course of action is preparation, making safety drills necessary.
Before you let your employees work inside the premises, you will have to plan the exercises for at least the entire year. Panic will ensue when workers come across life-threatening situations inside the building, but they will know what to do when they participate in regular safety drills.
Business establishments are critical for expansion plans and business growth, but you have to avoid rushing the process. Your employees’ safety matters the most, making it vital to ensure that you go through these tasks before occupancy.