January 9th 2023
There comes a time in every working environment where you need to reassess what works and what doesn’t. In the case of offices, these come in the form of a health check (or compliance check). Ensuring your office caters to the needs of both your staff and clients is of utmost importance in today’s business world and conducting these checks on at least a yearly basis will likely improve the overall satisfaction and safety of everyone who passes through the door.
Today we’re going to give you a rundown of what an office health check is and provide a handy checklist of things you should be monitoring and changing up wherever possible to get the most out of your space every day.
What is an Office Health Check?
Office health checks can consist of different areas which need to be assessed and addressed by the company. These can include a general health and safety check, maintenance for your IT and phone systems, and a closer look at your overall employee working conditions.
A health and safety check can be carried out by either an internal or external examiner, who will generally look over the layout of the office to identify any hazards (such as trip hazards), cleanliness checks on the toilets and any areas where food is prepared, as well as possibly looking at the structural integrity of the building. Although likely a regular occurrence anyway due to the nature of business, ensuring your IT systems and phone lines are secure and operational will also be critical in an office health check.
‘Employee working conditions’ can be a little vague at times in its definition, but within the framing of an office health check, this refers to the areas in which your employees are physically working. Enough natural light and clean air play a big part in the productivity of workers, so this is something that will be addressed within this check. Employees thrive in a highly creative work environment, and their working conditions are a huge contributor to this.
Why Your Office Space Needs a Health Check
At times, businesses can get so caught up with generating a profit that they neglect the working environment that they expect their employees to be productive in. A burst pipe can be a huge setback to office life, so conducting an office health check at regular intervals prevents any issues like this from occurring in the first place.
There are a myriad of issues that can creep up over time, so it’s better to think of a health check as regular scheduled maintenance and upkeep. Some of the main issues you may encounter, and why you’ll need to be addressing them as soon as possible are:
- Water issues – Poor water flow or dirty water through the taps
- Pipes – Burst pipes or frozen pipes in Winter
- Heating and Air Conditioning – Must be operational at all times
- Flooring – Broken tiles or upturned carpets that present a trip hazard
- Electricity – Surges and outages can massively hinder day-to-day working
- IT – Are all of your computers operational?
- Lighting – If using artificial light, ensure that it does not cause headaches or vision-related issues
- Toilets – Must be adequate enough for the size of your workforce
Your Office Health Checklist
So, we’ve explained what an office health check is, and why they are incredibly important for your business to conduct. Now let’s take a look at an actionable checklist of items that you can use to address any possible issues in your workplace.
1. Working Environment and Space
Firstly, take a look at the environment. Make sure to evaluate the size of your space and whether it is adequate for how many employees you have. If you are able to expand the working area of each employee to give them a bit more freedom, then you should be adapting the space to accommodate this. Situating desks near as much natural light as possible will also be helpful here, and you can even look into creating productive and cultural spaces in your office too.
2. Technology and Systems
Conduct regular checks on your computers and phones to ensure they’re operational at all times. This will likely fall to your internal IT technician to conduct, and is one of the few checks we suggest undertaking on a weekly basis. Also evaluate the systems you use as a business and see whether there are any upgrades you can make to them to help your employees more readily do their work each day.
3. Health and Safety
Nominate an employee to take on the role of health and safety inspector (or hire one externally if you so wish) to ensure that there are no immediate hazards in the office. If an employee were to fall and injure themselves at work due to health and safety negligence, it can start a long litigation process that we’re sure every business would rather avoid.
4. HR and Support
As a business, you should always be providing support to your employees. This comes in the form of a human resources department, where they can go to air any grievances or ask for help while they are at work. This can play a huge part in overall employee happiness, and by default, productivity.
5. Utilities and Services
Ensuring that your gas, water and electricity are all working correctly is very important in running an office space. If only one of these were to go down or stop working entirely, it can cause huge issues further down the road, which can include having the vacate the premises until the necessary fixes are made – which ultimately hinders business.
When to Conduct Your Health Check
So now that you know what checks to conduct, how often should you be doing them?
Yearly Checks
Health and safety checks can be carried out yearly for more in-depth checks on the overall health of the office and should be at the top of the list in terms of importance. These checks can address structural issues, as well as pipe and water maintenance.
You should liaise with the HR department to get a feel and understanding of office attitudes throughout the year and make the necessary changes that your employees are requesting.
Quarterly Checks
Environmental changes to the physical space can be carried out quarterly, to give employees a fresh perspective on their working areas which could even lead to improved productivity.
Monthly Checks
Smaller checks and evaluations of health and safety can be carried out on a monthly basis, focusing on office hazards and general working conditions, toilets, breakrooms and other small efficiencies.
Weekly Checks
As mentioned previously, we suggest weekly upkeep on your IT and any systems that are used daily for work, as if they were to go down, business grinds to a halt until they’re operational again.
Overall, it’s up to you as a business to ensure your office space is functional and easy to work in for your employees and following this general outline of when to conduct the checks will set you in good stead.
Office health checks are a necessity in modern business. They allow your employees to effortlessly get on with their day, without having to worry about what issues may be lurking behind the scenes.
If you’re looking for a new office space that ticks all of these boxes from the offset, head over and take a look at our serviced offices and managed office spaces today, or use our free office search tool to find fantastic offices in your desired area.
