It’s easy to think that the management of business premises should be solely curated by the maintenance staff you have on hand, but of course, there’s only so much they can do. They operate within the standards, policies, and compliance measures you enact from the top down, and as such, it’s essential to orchestrate these correctly.
Depending on the kind of premises you run and its general structure or internal outfitting, these measures can differ significantly. Managing an office block is different from managing a professional restaurant, bar, and kitchen, for example – and so the regulations you need to keep on top of will also vary.
But how can you ensure those standards are properly curated, enforced, verified, and curated? In the following post, we hope you help you with that approach in the best possible context. It might take a little time to achieve, but if you are careful, a consistent approach like this can lead to the positive management of your premises for decades to come.
Regular Testing & Surveys
Regular testings and surveys of the premises in question will ensure that not only light maintenance is attended to, but the systemic issues are noticed, measured, and cared for appropriately. Drain surveys, for instance, can help you see the health of your large piping and make sure that this infrastructure is operational or if it needs systemic replacement.
There are some additional examples that may be more obvious, like ensuring your ventilation and airflow are working correctly throughout the building, that your fire alarms work, that your elevators undergo stress testing correctly, and that all safety measures are properly reviewed and improved upon if necessary. Safety reviews of this nature can even pick up improvements that may not be mandated but could be helpful, such as a better handrail for your main staircase where two lines of traffic use this space in continual motion.
Third-Party Inspections
From time to time, it’s good to understand where your own biases may be as an owner or manager. You might not have the immaculate focus that someone who comes to inspect your business for the first time might have.
Third-party inspections are often hired by restaurants, for example, as an auditor can come and inspect all of the health provisions and measures necessary to ensure the kitchen is running to standard. They will even use harsher and more intensive criteria than the official health inspectors, quite purposefully. This means that when the official inspector arrives, their examination will be the easy part.
How could your firm benefit from this approach?
Accountability Measures
In order to enforce good habits, sometimes you have to appropriately punish those who allow their standards to lapse. This shouldn’t be a witch-hunt, nor should every mistake require penance, as it were, but the truth is that if an egregious error occurs, you cannot sweep that under the rug.
If you notice that safety equipment or fire safety standards haven’t been used or followed by a few staff members, this can put the rest of the team and building in danger. Accountability means making sure recording sheets are taken care of in order to see which staff member has been responsible for what task, what maintenance member approved an inspection, or even something simple such as the last time your restrooms were cleaned and by which individual.
Stern warnings, suspensions, and even dismissals can sometimes be appropriate here. When it comes to safety, only the best is required.
Emergency Contacts & Response
Safety is not always about the long preparations you make or the ability to eliminate every single risk you see because the former is not the same as a guarantee. The latter cannot be achieved in a reasonable way.
So, while every provision must be made in advance, it’s also important to know what to do when an emergency strikes. It’s not always obvious.
Emergency maintenance staff, contacts such as locksmiths, elevator staff that can be called out if it sticks, disaster recovery specialists after water or storm damage, and security specialists that can attend to faulty alarms or damaged closed-circuit-cameras is key. All this effort can make a tremendous difference in the long run.
With this advice, you’re sure to see how to manage standards and compliance within your business in the best possible way. It does take effort, careful management, and the willingness to improve, pending your reviews. Still, overall, the safety and utility you provide to everyone who uses that building is going to be priceless.