When it comes to running a restaurant, safety should always be a top priority. Staff can be like family, and you want to keep them free from harm. Restaurant work can be tough on the body, making wellness management an important factor for the success of your workforce.
Preventing illness and injury is also a practical concern. Restaurant kitchens sometimes need to keep up with high demand in peak hours. This means even one worker missing shifts due to preventable health issues can make a difference in customer satisfaction.
A safe kitchen environment
Kitchen safety is important for more than your workers. If a kitchen prepares food with unsafe methods, customers may get sick and sue your restaurant for food poisoning. Fortunately, you can take steps today to make a safe kitchen environment in your restaurant.
- Stay clean and organized — A clean kitchen is essential for keeping workers safe and passing federal health inspections. When workers are not attending to their main duties, they should be encouraged to tidy and sanitize their workstations.
- Use slip-resistant flooring — Even in a clean kitchen, some mess naturally occurs. People who work with fryers can get cooking oil on the soles of their shoes, and dishwasher stations often get wet over the course of a shift. Slippery floors can lead to workers falling. This can cause preventable injury, especially if employees are carrying hot pans or sharp knives.
- Keep appliances up to date — Outdated appliances and tools that fail to function properly can cause harm to your workers. Dull knife blades, for example, are more likely to slip and injure a worker’s hand.Though new equipment can incur a high upfront cost, it is worth it in the long run.
While taking all of these steps can be helpful, educating your kitchen employees is essential to really maximize safety in the workplace. Employees should know proper food handling practices and safe cooking techniques. As employees develop, there is usually more to learn and improve on with specific tasks.
Work-Fit can help your team use safety-first practices in the kitchen
Keeping your whole kitchen team up to date on safety practices can be a challenge, especially when your attention is divided between other elements of restaurant management. With Work-Fit, you can let us do the work in building up and supporting your team so that everyone learns about restaurant safety.
Contact our team today to learn about the services we offer and how we can support your team in maintaining restaurant safety.
