Is your Workplace Winter Ready?

Is your workplace prepared for the colder months? Winter brings its own set of challenges for busy workplaces.

Wet weather, mud, grit, ice and dirty footwear can quickly increase cleaning requirements, while colder temperatures create additional safety considerations around entrances, walkways and external areas. For food factories, manufacturing sites, warehouses and distribution centres, preparing early can help keep your workplace cleaner, safer and easier to manage throughout winter.

Here are some key areas to check before the cold weather arrives.

1. Get Ready for Ice Before It Arrives

Don't wait for the first freezing morning to discover you're out of rock salt!

Make sure you have sufficient rock salt, grit bins, scoops and spreaders ready for:

• Staff and visitor entrances
• External walkways
• Steps and ramps
• Loading areas
• Car parks
• Delivery and collection points

Keeping de-icing products accessible means your team can respond quickly when temperatures drop.

2. Stop Winter Dirt at the Door

Rain, mud and grit can quickly be carried inside on footwear.

Good-quality entrance matting can help capture dirt and moisture before it travels further into your workplace.

Before winter, check:

✓ Is your matting still in good condition?
✓ Is it large enough for the level of foot traffic?
✓ Are additional mats needed at staff entrances?
✓ Is it being cleaned regularly?

The more dirt you stop at the entrance, the less your cleaning team has to remove elsewhere.

3. Prepare for More Frequent Floor Cleaning

Even with effective entrance matting, winter usually means more water and dirt reaching internal floors.

Check your stock of:

• Mops and handles
• Buckets
• Floor-cleaning equipment
• Cleaning chemicals
• Brushes and squeegees

For food factories and hygiene-controlled environments, remember to maintain your colour-coded cleaning system and ensure equipment is clearly separated between different areas.

4. Don't Forget Wet-Floor Safety

Wet footwear and rainwater can quickly create slippery surfaces around entrances and communal areas.

Make sure wet-floor signs are readily available and that employees know exactly where they are stored.

It's a simple precaution — but one you don't want to be searching for when an entrance suddenly becomes wet during a busy shift.

5. Keep External Areas Under Control

Leaves, mud, litter and other debris can quickly build up outside — and much of it can eventually find its way indoors.

Check your external cleaning equipment, including:

✓ Outdoor brooms and stiff brushes
✓ Shovels
✓ Litter-picking equipment
✓ Grit bins and rock salt
✓ Salt scoops and spreaders
✓ External waste bins
✓ Heavy-duty refuse sacks

Keeping external areas under control can help reduce the amount of dirt reaching your entrances.

6. Review Your Cleaning Chemicals

Increased winter cleaning can mean increased chemical consumption.

Check that you have sufficient supplies of suitable floor cleaners, surface cleaners and other cleaning chemicals before demand increases.

It may also be a good time to consider whether your current cleaning equipment is making the job as efficient as possible.

If large entrance or warehouse areas are being cleaned manually every day, there may be equipment solutions that could help your team work more efficiently.

7. Give Your Washrooms a Winter Check

Don't forget your washrooms.

Make sure you're fully stocked with everyday essentials such as:

• Toilet tissue
• Paper hand towels
• Hand soap
• Hand sanitiser
• Refuse sacks
• Washroom cleaning products
• Odour-control products

And don't forget the dispensers.

Damaged or unreliable dispensers can cause unnecessary problems, particularly on busy sites with hundreds of employees using the facilities every day.

8. Review Hand Hygiene Across Your Site

Winter is also a good time to review hand-hygiene facilities beyond the washroom.

For food factories and food-production environments, make sure soap dispensers, paper towel dispensers and hand-hygiene stations are working correctly and adequately stocked. High-capacity paper roll towel systems can be particularly useful in busy environments where large numbers of employees need to wash and dry their hands throughout a shift.

The aim is simple: make sure employees always have what they need to follow your site's hand-hygiene procedures.

✅ Your Winter Site Checklist

Before the colder weather arrives, ask yourself:

☐ Do we have enough rock salt?
☐ Are our grit bins stocked and accessible?
☐ Is our external cleaning equipment in good condition?
☐ Is our entrance matting suitable for winter?
☐ Do we have enough mops and floor-cleaning equipment?
☐ Are wet-floor signs readily available?
☐ Do we have sufficient cleaning chemicals?
☐ Are washroom consumables fully stocked?
☐ Are soap and paper towel dispensers working correctly?
☐ Are our cleaning teams properly equipped?
☐ Do we have enough stock to cope with increased winter usage?

If the answer to any of these is "no" — now is the time to prepare.

Get Your Workplace Winter-Ready

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