It’s that time of year where we all have our Christmas Parties to celebrate a long year. Whether it is your own event or a third party hosted event at your facility/venue, there is a duty to ensure everyone enjoys a successful and safe event, with no incidents which cause injury.
It may be appropriate to develop a venue safety plan which covers items such as Responsible Service of Alcohol, security, staff training, patron safety, slip & fall, noise, event management and transport options. Controls outlined within a venue safety plan may include wet weather mats, site inspections at regular intervals, cleaning regimes, CCTV.
No matter the size of your event, large or small, there will be a level of monitoring required. Conducting an event risk assessment may be required in the planning stages for an event to ensure all potential risks have been identified and appropriately controlled. The risk assessment should cover the nature of the event, what is required to run a successful event, consider public well-being and safety emergency preparedness & response.
Providing an accommodating atmosphere that does not compromise safety can be a challenge. Staff should keep guests safe during the time of the event. Communicating this can be very difficult at events, so extra vigilance is required for customers to have the best experience.
Food Safety
Food safety can sometimes be overlooked at an event and left to the venue to manage. It’s important to work with the venue operator to ensure safe consumption of food and beverage.
Slips, Trips and Falls
Slips, trips and falls is the most common type of injury to customers, the general public and also staff within typical hospitality venues. If your business is hosting these events, we need to think about this as a potential hazard:
- Regular housekeeping;
- Hazard inspections;
- Elimination of hazard if found;
- Records of cleaning regimes;
- Checking for uneven surfaces and type of floor surface, and;
- Response to incidents.
Vendor Management
Vendors may be suppliers or contractors who provide important functions in the operation of the event. While the event organiser may outsource some or many of these roles to transfer some of the liability risk, the duty of care under the WHS Act is non-transferable. Thus, the importance for event organisers to have a systematic approach in place to manage the ‘life-cycle’ of contractors. The term ‘life-cycle’ implies considerations of the selection and management phases of the contractors’ engagement.
Event Risk Assessment
Training and awareness are critical to ensuring all events are managed safely. A simple risk assessment can be the key tool to protect you and to help all involved what’s been done to ensure all can have a safe and fun event. Contact Victual today for a 10-minute chat about your event and the risks associated with it.