Useful annual checks to make for your business premises in 2020

The new year is generally regarded as a great time for taking stock, making plans, and putting them into action. For those reasons alone, the start of a new year is naturally a particularly fitting time for business owners to make certain checks and reviews of their business. Some are best to do quarterly, so doing them in January makes it easier to remember when the next deadline’s coming up! As you might expect, your air conditioning features pretty prominently on the list of business assets to review regularly – here are our suggestions for some of the others!

Review your insurance policies

Your business may well already have all the insurance it needs, but this is an excellent example of something that it’s helpful to check every so often – especially if you’re actively growing your business. For example, if you employ anyone besides close friends and family, it’s worth checking the status of your employer’s liability insurance, as this covers you legally and financially if any of your employees suffer an injury on your premises. Similarly, it’s a good idea to revisit your public liability insurance, just in case. Business buildings insurance isn’t legally mandated in quite the same way, but it can give you valuable cover in case any of your buildings or businesses should suffer any kind of damage, whether that’s from theft and vandalism or floods and fire.

Examine ageing equipment and assets

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – that’s the saying that lots of people live by. Unfortunately, when you apply that philosophy to business assets, you might be opening yourself up to a whole lot of risk. Just because something looks functional doesn’t necessarily mean it’s still safe to use – for example, if a company ladder collapses and injuries someone, the ensuing consequences can’t be brushed off with ‘well it looked OK’.

That’s the trouble with ageing assets – it’s clear to see the difference between a brand new piece of equipment and one that’s decades old. However, it’s much harder to identify the exact point at which that same piece of equipment becomes unsafe to use, which means business owners have to use judgement about their older assets. Don’t risk it – if it’s more than a few years old, have it inspected professionally or consider replacing it, especially if any employee’s safety is dependent on the outcome.

Review fire escape plans and risk assessments

This will be especially important if you’ve had a significant number of new starters at your business in the last 12 months, or you’ve significantly changed the layout of any working areas in the past year. Desks may have been moved, or new pieces of equipment assigned to existing wall outlets. You may have done your due diligence at the time, but it never hurts to regularly review these aspects of your business – just in case you missed something the first time. When it comes to safety, even the smallest of mistakes can have dangerous or even deadly consequences – so you can never do too much checking!

Examine the efficiency of your building’s internal systems

This means not just your fire and security systems, but also the more mundane (but vital) aspects, such as your overall energy usage. We recently covered four easy ways for your business to save energy in the winter, but as well as optimising your normal working practices, you might also want to invest in more efficient equipment.

Your heating and air conditioning systems are naturally another area that could always benefit from careful attention, and studies have shown that temperature has a direct effect on the productivity of employees. In fact, a preventative air conditioning maintenance plan for your systems can end up saving you hundreds over the course of a given year, as it gives specialists a chance to detect and address emerging issues before they develop into serious problems.

Happily, that’s a service we offer right here at Askews. With over 25 years of experience behind us, we’re the perfect people to help you keep your heating, cooling and air conditioning systems in tip top condition. You can get a free quote right here on our site, or give us a call on 01282 863 825, and we’ll be happy to see how we can help!

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