3 October 2017 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal
The BIFM has launched its latest Good Practice Guide to Winter Maintenance in association with GRITIT, the winter gritting maintenance specialists.
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 for winter maintenance, covering all aspects from creating a plan and reducing risk to driving safely.
Also released is Winter Risk Management Guidance Note, highlighting the key factors that should be considered alongside each other.
The weather forecasters' predictions for some of the coldest winters this century became a reality in 2016 and 2010, and the notoriously unpredictable UK weather has become more volatile.
The best way to meet the challenge of these conditions is through thorough planning and preparation for winter maintenance, and with little documented guidance available for FMs, the BIFM's guide in conjunction with GRITIT supports the development of robust winter maintenance plans that can be embedded at top level to a company's health and safety policy.
Research carried out by BIFM and GRITIT reveals that more than 30 per cent of organisations fail to plan for the winter period, and of those that do plan ahead, 85 per cent were not planning to do anything differently to 2012, despite UK plc receiving an overall £318 million bill as a result of business closures because of snow.
Peter Brogan, Research and Information Manager, said: "The following winter weather guide is a key addition to our Good Practice Guides suite and informs facilities management professionals how to plan and prepare for the winter season. Fundamentally, this should feed into an organisation's winter maintenance plans and the development of better working practices."
Jason Petsch said:" We know that FMs 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."
He added: "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."
The latest guide covers all aspects of winter maintenance and top tips from BIFM's Winter Maintenance Good Practice Guide.
- Ensure that 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 that it covers all the areas required in the policy and also to see whether it can positively impact the organisation'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 one of many new or updated guides to be released by BIFM in the coming months. BIFM's Good Practice Guides series aim to be jargon-free practical guides on specific and diverse subjects for the benefit of FM professionals. The guides provide hints and tips that FMs are able to implement into their working practices with ease.
The Winter Maintenance Guide is free to download to all BIFM members as part of their member benefits and £19.99 for non-members. It is available now direct from BIFM along with other guides in the series: www.bifm.org.uk/Winter_Maintenance_GPG
The Winter Risk Management Guidance note is free to download to members and non-members along with other guidance notes at: www.bifm.org.uk/Winter_Risk_GN