Slip & Fall Readiness

Protect Others, Protect Yourself

As a snow contractor, the possibility of a slip and fall on one of your properties is always on your mind. Obviously, every precaution must be taken to ensure the safety of clients and those on their sites. But what documentation do you need to protect yourself against a slip and fall claim? Being prepared can make the process a lot smoother, less stressful, and less costly. 

Slip and fall readiness and the ability to defend yourself in the event of a claim starts and stops at good documentation. In this case, there’s no such thing as too much information and there’s no substitute for being prepared.

The struggle for most owners is that they have difficulty differentiating between defending themself from a claim and being operationally efficient. Here’s the deal: the documentation you should be gathering does not make your operation more efficient. In fact, it makes things harder. Your employees may not love you, but your adjuster and lawyer will! And in the event of claim, you will be very, very thankful you took the time to document your process. 

So, what should you be documenting?

• Service records for vehicles and equipment, showing that they’re well maintained.
• Follow-up emails for when a property manager or owner gives you direction that may impact your liability later. For example, you may be given instruction to disregard an area of the property and not service that area. In this case, you want to send a follow up email that outlines the instruction you’ve been given. In the event of a slip and fall, you can refer to this and limit your liability. 
• Written job descriptions for each position in the organization. This is helpful for many reasons, but it also shows that you and your staff know their responsibilities.
• Pre-storm communication to property owners or managers. For example, send out an email prior to an event containing the current forecast, your plan of action, to set service expectations, and to remind clients to be careful and wear proper footwear for the weather. 
• Site camera records if you use them. If you’re not using site cameras, you should consider it. Site cameras can be invaluable for both operational and claims purposes. 
• Accurate salt recording for all services. Record actual quantifiable amounts, i.e. buckets or bags for sidewalks, tons or kgs for parking lots. 
• GPS records on equipment and vehicles.
• Digital time sheets with before and after photos, if possible.
• Records of calibrated salters, showing that this is done annually (at the least).
• Screen shots or printouts of the forecasts you’ve relied on to mobilize for a weather event. This forecasted information, on which you’re acting, will not be available again, so record it. You can always look back and get information about what happened weather-wise, but not the forecasted information you made the plan on. 
• Separate documentation for patrol and active weather events. Active weather events are those to which you respond based on active weather. Patrol is when sites are monitored between weather events for potential hazards. Both should be documented.  
• Job-specific training for field staff. There are a lot of great online training platforms that will record and document your staff training and ensure that they are receiving the right training for their role. 
• Pre-season inspection reports for each property every year.
• Winter site map, clearly labeled with where to pile snow. This is the very least you want on a site map. Ideally, you will also mark catch basins, handicap spots, emergency doors, priority areas, hours of operation, and the order of serviced areas. 

Creating a culture of liability prevention and hazard identification only happens when it’s done intentionally. And it needs to involve the whole team. Teach your staff about slip and fall prevention and about liability. Provide instruction to them about what to be looking for and to look not only for hazards, but also for the causes of those hazards (if ice keeps forming in a particular spot, then identify the cause and determine if it is possible to address the cause rather than just keep salting the icy patch). Tailgate talks are a great way to teach your staff and remind them what to watch out for.

The reality is that you will very likely get a slip and fall claim at some point if you haven’t already. Put your mind at ease by creating a system that helps prevent slip and falls, but also protects you and your company in the event one does happen.