All posts by Jordan Bell

Far and away, the most common complaint we hear is that people hate taking their ice cleats on and off throughout the day, especially when they walk from outside to inside frequently. Who can blame them? Winter slips and falls on snow and ice are often the number one cause of recordable incidents. While ice cleats seem like an obvious solution to reduce accidents, there are two realities that complicate the issue:

If you are reading this blog, you are most likely a safety professional of some sort. That being the case, I ask you: What is your biggest safety sin or workplace hazard? To put it in perspective, I’ll tell you mine. But let me first give you some background. Winter Walking is North America’s largest manufacturer of traction aid ice cleats. We help hundreds of companies and thousands of employees reduce the chance of suffering a slip and fall injury while on the job. We take tremendous pride in our product line, our company and our task. So can you imagine how embarrassed I would be if I perso[…]

Last winter, I wrote a blog post entitled, “Why Are There No Regulations Around Ice Cleats?” It turned out to be one of my most popular blog entries, so I figured it was time to revisit the topic. In the original post, I wrote that the main reason for a lack of industry standards or regulations around ice cleats is the number of variables in recreating an outdoorslippery surface. But I don’t think that my post was popular because people wanted to hear why these regulations don’t exist. Instead, what safety professionals really want to know is what can they do in light of the lack of regulation[…]

Resistance to change is simply part of human nature. If you want to see that resistance in action, try introducing a new piece of PPE to an established workforce. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the following response when discussing ice cleats with a safety manager: “It’s not even worth buying ice cleats this winter. I know my guys. They’ll never bother to put them on.”

If you spent time in the fall doing your due diligence and placing your ice cleat orders BEFORE the first snowfall, then this advice is not for you. However, if you waited until late December, January or February to implement your slip and fall program than my advice to you is simple; Done is Better than Perfect.