Why are water safety plans important for business?

Running a successful business consists of so much more than ‘just’ finding a product or service and then marketing it to people. There are countless other processes that need to be attended to, from avoiding discrimination in the hiring process to keeping your clients and employees safe. Here, we focus on a sometimes overlooked yet essential part of running a business – water safety – and in particular, why having a water safety plan is so important in order to take that risk seriously.

It’s a legal necessity

Before we get into the multiple practical benefits, it’s important to note early on that it’s a legal requirement for almost all businesses to ensure ongoing access to safe water on their premises. 

This duty is formally stated under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, and in most cases, it will be necessary to have a water safety plan in place in order to comply with these regulations. Failure to comply with these legal requirements can result in your business facing serious legal issues, whether an incident occurs as a result or not.

They help to ensure a safe work environment

Water safety plans aren’t just important because of their legal necessity – they’re also practically beneficial when it comes to creating a safe work environment. Quite aside from facing legal action, ensuring the well-being of your employees is incredibly important when it comes to running a business.

Water safety-related incidents can result in serious illness, which in turn can lead to prolonged absences and a breakdown in employee-employer trust. Maintaining that relationship is key, especially in the long run. Without it, you’ll find it nearly impossible to retain talented employees, and equally difficult to recruit new ones.

What do water safety plans entail?

The recommended framework of a water safety plan is relatively broad – the plan needs to aim to ensure the ongoing safety of water systems in a comprehensive manner. This is because it’s designed to be applicable to a wide variety of different businesses, from small cafes all the way to schools.

Typically, one of the main parts of creating your water safety plan will consist of creating a water safety group. This will entail the assignment of clear responsibility to certain individuals inside your organisation, including a Responsible Person and a Duty Responsible Person. 

These responsibilities should be clearly recorded in a document. In order to put the plan in place, your business will also need to have water risk assessments carried out, to highlight key areas of concern, and come up with ways to mitigate those concerns.

It’s important that you don’t think of water safety plans as an optional extra. Failure to take water safety seriously can result in serious legal issues, or worse, in employees or customers falling seriously ill. Developing a water safety plan can seem a little daunting, but with the right help, you can create a framework that’s designed to cater to a wide variety of different risks, keeping your business and employees safe in the long run.