How to Reduce Slip & Fall Liability for Your Business

By Jared Sarbit

Sign calling out slip and fall risk at business site

Summary:

Slip-and-fall liability stems from failing to take “reasonable steps” to keep visitors safe under Alberta’s Occupiers’ Liability Act. Regular floor care, fast spill response, scheduled inspections, hazard escalation, and proper logging are essential. Free tools like PPC’s interactive seasonal checklist highlights gaps, provides a risk score, and offers targeted actions so businesses can improve safety programs and protect themselves from costly incidents.

Slip-and-fall accidents are one of the most common causes of workplace injuries and liability claims. Under Alberta’s Occupiers’ Liability Act, business owners must take “reasonable steps” to keep visitors safe, and that means more than putting out a wet floor sign.

This article explains what those steps look like, why having the right cleaning program plays a major role in safety for commercial businesses, and how to create a plan that offers comprehensive protection: for employees, customers, and the reputation of your business.

To find a reliable commercial cleaning partner in Alberta, contact Picture Perfect Cleaning. We can create a flexible cleaning plan based on the needs of your space so that everyone who sets foot in it can do so with confidence.

Your Legal Duty Under Alberta’s Occupiers’ Liability Act

Alberta’s Occupiers’ Liability Act sets a clear expectation: if you control a property, you must take “reasonable steps” to make sure that people entering it are reasonably safe.

For business owners, this means:

Identifying hazards: Wet floors, loose mats, ice at entrances, and spills in high-traffic areas.
Addressing risks promptly: Cleaning, repairing, or cordoning off hazardous areas as quickly as possible.
Providing warnings: Posting clear signage if a risk cannot be removed immediately.
Keeping records: Documenting cleaning and inspection routines to demonstrate that you acted responsibly.

Failure to meet these standards can result in negligence claims, lost productivity, and reputational damage (not to mention costly legal action).

Common Risk Areas That Lead to Slip & Fall Incidents

Entrances and Lobbies

Tracked-in snow, mud, or water can make entrances the most dangerous part of your building. High-quality entrance mats and frequent cleaning are critical.

Washrooms and Kitchens

Spills near sinks, soap drips, and water leaks often go unnoticed. These areas need more frequent checks and wipe-downs than other parts of the building.

High-Traffic Hallways

Dust, debris, and worn flooring in corridors increase slip hazards over time. Proper maintenance schedules help reduce buildup.

Learn More: Tips to Keep High-Traffic Areas in Your Facility Clean

Stairs and Ramps

Missed spills or dust on stairs and ramps can lead to serious injuries. They should be checked and cleaned multiple times daily if traffic is heavy.

How Cleaning Programs Can Help Prevent Workplace Accidents

Slip-and-fall liability is not about how your business reacts after an accident happens. It’s about preventing the conditions that make accidents likely, and a strong cleaning program does exactly that.

Here are some of the most common ways the right cleaning program will make your business safer and reduce risk for everyone:

Floor Maintenance: Regular sweeping, mopping, and refinishing keep floors free from grit, dust, and surface wear that reduce traction.
Spill Response: A well-defined process ensures that spills are spotted and cleaned quickly, minimizing exposure time for visitors.
Seasonal Prep: Extra matting and more frequent entry cleaning during Alberta’s long snowy months and brief-but-intense summer rains can prevent moisture from collecting in areas with high foot traffic.
Inspection Frequency: Scheduled walk-throughs catch hazards early and document fixes so that future risks can be identified and prevented more efficiently.
Audit Trails: Having these logs and incident reports creates evidence that your business is performing its due diligence to ensure public safety, which is crucial if a claim does get filed.

This means a comprehensive cleaning program has to do more than just make your environment appear clean. Cleaning is practical as well as aesthetic: it is an important aspect of protecting people and shielding your business from preventable claims.

Building a Safer Cleaning Program with Professional Janitorial Services

Meeting your duty of care under Alberta’s Occupiers’ Liability Act takes time, expertise, and consistency. Not every business is well-positioned to do this with an in-house team, so hiring a reliable cleaning partner for professional janitorial support is often the most cost-efficient way to ensure compliance and safety.

Learn More: The Ultimate Guide to Janitorial Companies in Calgary & Edmonton

Here’s how professional cleaners typically support businesses with each of the steps that reduce slip-and-fall risk:

Floor Maintenance

Keeping floors safe involves more than a quick daily mop. Professional cleaners can:

Schedule routine sweeping and mopping
Choose the right cleaning products for each surface
Monitor finish wear to keep traction consistent

In high-traffic areas, teams like ours may also recommend periodic deep cleans or refinishing to prevent surfaces from becoming slippery.

Spill Response

Effective spill response is as much about speed and documentation as cleaning itself. Professional cleaners can:

Ensure spill kits and supplies are available in key areas
Respond quickly and leave the floor fully dry and safe
Log each cleanup with time stamps for liability protection

Seasonal Prep

Seasonal conditions can dramatically change floor safety, especially during Alberta’s long winters. Cleaning partners typically:

Rotate and maintain entrance mats to capture snow, ice, and mud
Increase cleaning frequency during wet seasons to keep entrances clear
Use salt- and floor-safe products to prevent damage while reducing slip risk

Inspection Frequency

Consistent inspections catch hazards before they cause an incident. A professional janitorial plan can:

Include hazard checks as part of routine cleaning rounds
Inspect mats, floors, and stairwells multiple times daily if needed
Report issues with photos and notify management right away

Audit Trails and Records
Proper documentation is your strongest defense if a claim is filed. Professional cleaners can:

Maintain detailed cleaning and inspection logs
Provide digital reports that can be stored and retrieved easily
Help prove that your business took reasonable steps to protect visitors

Keep Your Business on Sure Footing with Picture Perfect Cleaning

When these steps are combined into a single, consistent cleaning program, you create a safer environment for everyone who enters your space, and reduce your risk if a claim is ever made. Picture Perfect Cleaning can deliver this kind of program with scheduled floor care, seasonal adjustments, hazard inspections, and detailed reporting all built into a custom plan designed for your business.

Use our interactive checklist below to see if your current cleaning plan covers these critical areas. For help plugging the gaps, contact Picture Perfect Cleaning. We can help you close the gaps and build a plan that protects your visitors and your business year-round.

How to Use This Checklist

This tool makes it simple to assess your slip-and-fall prevention plan and take action where it matters most.

Select your current season so the checklist reflects real-world floor conditions.
Answer five quick questions about your floor care, spill response, inspections, hazard reporting, and logging practices.
Review your risk score to see whether your program is Low, Moderate, or High risk.
Follow the recommended actions and seasonal tips to close gaps and strengthen your cleaning plan.

Download your checklist for printing or sharing with your team so everyone can stay accountable.

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Cost Calculator

What Is In-House Cleaning Really Costing You?

Adjust the four numbers below to see your true annual in-house cleaning cost, an estimated cost range with Picture Perfect Cleaning, and what you'd save by making the switch.

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Estimates are based on average commercial cleaning rates across Alberta and typical management and coverage costs. Your actual quote depends on square footage, service frequency, facility type, and scope of work. Request a custom quote above for an exact number.

The Hidden Cost of In-House Cleaning

A wage comparison only tells part of the story. Here’s what usually gets left out:

Wages and Benefits

Payroll is usually the first number people look at when they think about cleaning costs, but it rarely tells the whole story. Supplies, equipment, manager oversight, scheduling headaches, and the inevitable sick days all add up over time. By the time you account for everything, the true cost of keeping cleaning in-house can look very different from what’s on the payroll report. That’s exactly what our cost comparison tool is designed to help you see, along with what outsourcing might save.

Supplies and Equipment

Cleaning products, paper goods, vacuums, floor machines, and the replacement parts that keep them running all add up over the course of a year. Businesses that clean in-house often buy retail-grade supplies at retail prices because they don’t have access to the commercial pricing that a cleaning company gets from its suppliers. Equipment also breaks down, and replacing a vacuum or floor buffer every few years is a cost that rarely gets planned for in advance.

Management Time

Somebody has to schedule shifts, check the quality of the work, order more supplies when they run low, and step in when something gets missed. That’s real time pulled from a manager’s actual job, and it rarely gets assigned a dollar value, even though it should. If a facilities manager or office lead spends even a few hours a week on cleaning oversight, that’s time not spent on the parts of their role that actually move the business forward.

Absenteeism and Coverage Gaps

Sick days and missed shifts are part of running any team. When they happen, the work still has to get done, which usually means paying someone else to cover the shift or accepting that some tasks will have to wait. Over the course of a year, those extra costs can become surprisingly significant. There’s another effect that’s harder to measure, too. When cleaning is inconsistent, people notice. Employees notice it, clients notice it, and visitors notice it, even if they couldn’t tell you exactly why the space feels different.

Cost Category	What It Covers
Wages & Benefits	Annual pay for in-house cleaning staff
Supplies & Equipment	Products, tools, and machine upkeep
Management Time	Hours spent scheduling and supervising
Absenteeism	Missed shifts and last-minute coverage

Why Outsourcing Often Comes Out Ahead

Once you’ve seen your own numbers, the reasons behind the gap start to make sense.

Predictable Pricing

A cleaning company quote covers labor, supplies, and equipment on a single line. You know what you’re paying before the work starts, and that number doesn’t shift because someone called in sick or a vacuum broke down. Budgeting gets easier when the cost of cleaning is a single line item rather than four separate ones scattered across payroll, supplies, and management time.

No Coverage Gaps

When a member of an in-house cleaning team calls in sick, someone on your staff has to figure out what happens next. With a professional cleaning service, that responsibility shifts to the provider. If a cleaner is unavailable, arranging a replacement is part of the service, so your team isn’t left scrambling to fill the gap.

Accountability Built In

Picture Perfect Cleaning holds COR certification and provides regular service reporting, so you can see what’s being done and when, without spending your own hours checking on it. That’s the management time most in-house teams never get back. Our team also uses EcoLogo- and Green Seal-certified products, so you’re not trading cost savings for a lower cleaning standard.

Get Your Custom Quote

Wages are only one line in what in-house cleaning actually costs. Once you add in supplies, the hours a manager spends overseeing the crew, and the gaps left by sick days, the real number is usually higher than what shows up on a payroll report and often higher than what a professional service would charge for the same work. That’s the gap the tool above is built to show you, along with what outsourcing could put back in your budget.

Our cost comparison tool gives you a reasonable estimate of what you could save by switching to a professional cleaning service, not a final number. Every building is different, and factors like your cleaning schedule, the size of your facility, and the services you need will affect the actual cost. If you’d like a more accurate quote based on your space, contact Picture Perfect Cleaning, and we’ll walk you through the options.