Catch Hazards Before Someone Gets Hurt 

Restaurant managers walk through their restaurants constantly.

You walk through the dining room on your way to the kitchen. You pass the dish area while looking for an employee. You step through the back door when a delivery arrives. You notice the wet floor, the box sitting where it shouldn't be, or the mat that's starting to curl at the edge.

The problem is that when you're managing a busy restaurant, seeing something isn't always the same as intentionally looking for it.

That's why the Restaurant Manager's Safety Command Center™ includes the Restaurant Employee Safety Checklist™ — a practical restaurant safety walkthrough designed to help managers systematically look for common employee safety hazards before somebody gets hurt.

It doesn't require an elaborate inspection.

It gives you a way to stop for a few minutes, walk your restaurant with safety specifically in mind, and ask:

What needs attention today?

A Restaurant Safety Checklist Turns "I Think We're Okay" Into an Actual Walkthrough

Most restaurant managers know their building extremely well. But familiarity can work against us.

When you've stepped around the same stack of boxes for three days, you may stop noticing it. When the non-slip mat has slowly shifted out of position, it becomes part of the scenery. When an extension cord has looked questionable for weeks, it's surprisingly easy for everyone to walk past it.

A restaurant workplace safety checklist changes the way you look at the building.

Instead of simply walking through the restaurant, you're intentionally checking floors, walkways, equipment, PPE, exits, electrical hazards, chemical storage and other areas that could contribute to an employee accident.

OSHA's restaurant safety resources identify many of these same everyday hazards, including slips, trips and falls, cuts, burns and scalds, electrical hazards, hazardous chemicals, strains and sprains, and equipment-related hazards.  

These aren't unusual restaurant hazards.

They're Tuesday.

And Wednesday.

And Saturday night at 7:15 when you're three people short.

Start With Front-of-House Restaurant Safety

Employee accidents don't happen only in the kitchen.

Servers, hosts, bussers and other front-of-house employees spend their shifts moving quickly through dining rooms, server stations, hallways, entrances and other high-traffic areas.

That's why the Restaurant Employee Safety Checklist™ begins with a front-of-house safety inspection.

Managers can check whether floors and walkways are clean and dry, spills are being handled promptly, aisles and traffic paths are unobstructed, lighting is adequate, furnishings are stable, swinging doors and blind corners can be navigated safely, and emergency exits remain accessible. 

These sound like little things.

Until one of them causes an injury.

OSHA specifically recommends keeping passageways clear, maintaining adequate lighting, addressing wet floors, using appropriate non-slip measures, and considering ways to reduce collision hazards around blind corners and swinging doors.  

A quick front-of-house restaurant safety checklist gives managers a repeatable way to notice those conditions before an employee finds them the hard way.

Then Walk the Back of House and Kitchen

The kitchen presents an entirely different set of employee safety hazards.

Your back-of-house safety checklist should make you look beyond cleanliness and food safety and specifically consider the things that can hurt employees.

Are floors as dry as practical?

Are non-slip mats positioned correctly?

Are knives and sharp tools being stored and handled safely?

Are guards in place on powered equipment?

Is appropriate PPE available?

Are employees working safely around fryers, steam and other hot surfaces?

Are electrical cords and outlets in good condition?

Are chemicals properly labeled and stored with Safety Data Sheets accessible?

The REST checklist also addresses lifting and storage, step stools and ladders, walk-in coolers and freezers, and safe disposal of trash, broken glass and sharp objects.  

That's an important distinction.

A restaurant food safety checklist and a restaurant employee safety checklist are not the same thing.

One primarily asks, Is the food being handled safely?

The other asks, Are the people handling it being protected too?

Restaurants need both.

Don't Forget the Hazards That Affect the Entire Restaurant

Some restaurant safety hazards don't belong neatly in the front or back of house.

Fire extinguishers need to remain accessible. Emergency exits and evacuation routes need to stay clear. First-aid supplies need to be available. Employees need to know how to report hazards, injuries and near misses. Required safety equipment and PPE need to remain usable.  

The checklist also includes exterior and delivery areas, because employee safety doesn't stop at the back door.

Entrances, sidewalks, delivery areas, employee access points, exterior lighting and dumpster areas can all create hazards that may otherwise be overlooked during a typical restaurant safety inspection.  

That makes this more than a kitchen safety checklist.

It's designed as a practical walkthrough of the restaurant as an employee workplace.

Finding the Hazard Is Only Half the Job

This may be one of the most important pieces of the Restaurant Employee Safety Checklist™.

At the bottom isn't just a place to write notes.

There's a Corrective Action / Follow-Up section.

If something needs attention, the manager can document the problem, identify the person responsible, establish a target correction date, record whether the correction was completed, and initial the follow-up.  

That's a very different safety process from:

"Somebody needs to fix that."

Who?

By when?

Did anybody actually do it?

A useful restaurant safety inspection checklist shouldn't simply help you identify hazards. It should help move those hazards toward correction.

See it. Document it. Assign it. Correct it.

That's how a checklist becomes part of a safety system instead of another piece of paper.

A Restaurant Safety Walkthrough Shouldn't Take Over Your Day

Restaurant managers do not need another complicated process.

That's one of the principles behind the entire Restaurant Manager's Safety Command Center™.

Safety has to work inside an actual restaurant.

That means during call-outs.

During deliveries.

During lunch rush.

During inventory.

During equipment problems.

During all the ordinary chaos that comes with running a restaurant.

The Restaurant Employee Safety Checklist™ is meant to provide a simple structure for a quick restaurant safety walkthrough so managers know what to look for and have somewhere to document what they find.

You don't need to inspect the building as though you've never seen it before.

You simply need to look at it differently for a few minutes.

The Checklist Becomes More Powerful When It's Part of a System

A checklist can help you spot a hazard.

But what happens next?

Suppose you discover employees aren't handling knives correctly.

That's a training issue.

Suppose the same slippery area keeps appearing near the dish station.

That's a hazard that needs to be documented and corrected.

Suppose an employee has already fallen.

Now you need incident documentation and follow-up.

Suppose you discover an emergency exit has repeatedly become obstructed.

That's not merely something to check off. That's something management needs to address.

That's why the Restaurant Employee Safety Checklist™ lives inside the Restaurant Manager's Safety Command Center™.

The goal isn't to give restaurant managers a pile of disconnected safety forms.

It's to give them a system in which the pieces work together.

Your Restaurant Changes Every Day. Your Safety Walkthrough Should Keep Up.

The restaurant you opened this morning won't necessarily be the restaurant you're managing tonight.

Deliveries arrive.

Equipment moves.

Floors get wet.

Boxes accumulate.

Employees change stations.

Things break.

People get busy.

And hazards appear.

A restaurant employee safety checklist gives managers a simple way to keep looking.

Not because every walkthrough is going to uncover a major problem.

Hopefully it won't.

But catching one wet floor, one blocked exit, one damaged cord, one poorly stored knife, one missing piece of PPE or one other hazard before someone gets hurt can make those few minutes very worthwhile.

That's what the Restaurant Manager's Safety Command Center™ is built to do:

Make restaurant safety easier to manage before the OUCH happens.

Explore the Restaurant Manager's Safety Command Center™

See how the Restaurant Employee Safety Checklist™, training tools, trackers, documentation resources and other restaurant safety tools work together in one organized system.

Need only the Restaurant Safety Checklist? Click HERE