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Quick Wins to Reduce Slip Risk This Month
You can reduce slip risk this month by focusing on your highest-traffic wet zones first, checking your current cleaning products aren’t undermining grip, and getting those specific areas measured rather than relying on assumption. None of this requires a full floor replacement or a large budget. It requires knowing where to look, and acting before an incident forces the issue.
Waiting for a claim isn’t a strategy. It’s a delay.
As a Facilities Manager in hospitality, you’re busy. Slip risk is one of many things competing for your attention, and it’s easy to let it sit until something actually happens. That’s the old belief quietly at work: we’ll deal with it if a claim comes in.
The trouble is, waiting means the risk has already existed for however long it takes for an incident to occur, often longer than anyone realises. Prevention doesn’t need to be a big, disruptive project. It’s an investment you can start making this month, in small, specific steps, that reduces your exposure well before any claim would ever land on your desk.
Where should you actually focus first to reduce slip risk?
Not every part of your building carries the same risk, so the first quick win is knowing where to look. Rather than trying to improve everything at once, focus on the zones most likely to be wet or contaminated at any given time.
- Entrances, especially during wet weather
- Bar service areas, where spillage is routine
- Kitchen floors, particularly around washdown areas
- Poolside surrounds, if your venue has one
- Any transition point between wet and dry flooring
These zones account for a disproportionate share of slip risk in most hospitality venues. Concentrating your effort here, rather than spreading it thinly across the whole building, gives you the fastest, most meaningful reduction in risk this month.
Is your cleaning routine actually helping, or quietly working against you?
This is a quick win many facilities teams overlook. Cleaning more often feels proactive, but the wrong product or method can leave a residue that actually reduces a floor’s grip, even on a surface that looks spotless.
Take ten minutes this week to check what’s currently being used in your highest-risk zones, and whether the product is genuinely suited to that specific flooring type. A quick conversation with your cleaning team or contractor about what’s being used, and why, often reveals gaps that are easy to close without any real cost.
How do you know if your matting is actually doing its job?
Matting is one of the most common “quick fixes” already in place, but it’s worth checking whether it’s genuinely covering the risk, rather than just being present. A short mat at an entrance can leave floor exposed well beyond its edge on a wet day, giving a false sense that the entrance risk is handled.
This month, walk your entrances and check two things: does the mat actually reach far enough to cover where feet are wettest, and is it in good enough condition to still be absorbing moisture effectively. If either answer is no, this is a low-cost fix you can action quickly.
What’s the fastest way to know where you actually stand?
Rather than guessing which of your zones need attention, running through the CHIMES framework for each high-risk area gives you a quick, structured way to spot where the gaps are:
- Contamination: what’s realistically going to end up on this floor, and how quickly is it dealt with
- Heel: does footwear change suddenly in this zone, and does that matter here
- Individual: who’s exposed, and how often, staff on long shifts versus guests passing through
- Maintenance: is the current cleaning approach suited to this specific floor
- Environment: are there lighting, gradient or wet-to-dry transition issues
- Surface: has this floor been measured, or are you relying on how it looks
Running through these six questions for even three or four of your highest-risk zones this month will surface more actionable insight than a general walkaround ever will.
Should you get your floors properly measured this month?
If you’ve never had your highest-risk zones tested, this is the single most valuable quick win available. A professional slip test gives you an actual reading of how a floor performs, wet and dry, rather than relying on how it looks or feels underfoot.
Slip Safety Services has found that organisations who move from assumption to measurement, then act on what they find, see a 57%+ average reduction in slip incidents. That result comes from knowing exactly where the risk sits, rather than guessing and hoping the basics are enough.
What can you realistically achieve in a month?
None of the above requires a major capital project. A realistic month looks like this: identify your three to five highest-risk zones, review and adjust cleaning products where needed, check matting coverage and condition, and get at least your highest-priority zone properly tested.
That’s a meaningful reduction in risk achieved through attention and small, targeted actions, not a large budget or months of planning.
What good looks like
A Facilities Manager doing this well knows exactly which zones in their venue carry the highest slip risk, and has recent, dated evidence for how those zones actually perform. Cleaning products are matched to the specific flooring in each area, not applied uniformly out of habit. Matting is checked regularly, not assumed to be doing its job indefinitely. And rather than waiting for an incident to prompt a review, small improvements happen continuously, month by month, as a matter of routine.
The takeaway
Waiting for a claim to force action means the risk has already been sitting there, unaddressed, for longer than it needed to. The quicker shift is simple: treat prevention as something you invest a little time in every month, starting with your highest-risk zones, rather than something you react to once it’s too late.
Next step
If you’re not sure which of your zones need attention first, the Slip Prevention Scorecard takes a few minutes and gives you a clear starting point. For an actual reading of how your highest-risk floors perform, a professional slip test gives you the full picture. And for the fuller method behind measuring, improving and maintaining floor grip, Slipology by Christian Harris covers the process in depth.
FAQ
What’s the quickest way to reduce slip risk without a big budget?
Start by identifying your highest-risk zones, entrances, kitchens, bars and any wet areas, and checking whether current cleaning products and matting are actually suited to them. These small reviews often reveal gaps that cost little or nothing to fix.
Can cleaning more often actually make a floor more slippery?
Yes. The wrong cleaning product or method can leave a residue that reduces a floor’s grip, even when the surface looks clean. Reviewing what’s currently used in your highest-risk zones is a quick, low-cost check worth doing regularly.
How do I know if my entrance matting is actually working?
Check whether the mat covers the area where feet are genuinely wettest, not just the doorway itself, and whether it’s still in good enough condition to absorb moisture effectively. A mat that’s too short or too worn gives a false sense that the risk is handled.
Is it worth getting floors tested if there’s never been an incident?
Yes. An absence of incidents doesn’t mean an absence of risk, since many near misses go unreported. Testing gives you an actual measurement of a floor’s grip, rather than relying on the fact that nothing has gone wrong yet.
What should I prioritise first if I can only tackle one thing this month?
Focus on your single highest-risk zone, typically an entrance, kitchen, or any area that’s wet by design, such as a pool surround. Getting that one zone properly assessed gives you the clearest, most actionable information to act on.