Should your employee do you PAT Testing?

PAT testing is the testing of portable appliances that all businesses must carry out at their premises. It is a test that is legally required on any equipment that is plugged into a mains supply, including computers, microwaves, and many other things. Although items such as fridges and washing machines are not portable as such, as they are usually kept in one position, they still count as portable appliances as they can be moved if necessary. PAT testing within a business can either be done by employees, or by specialist firms who will come in and do it for you. There are advantages and disadvantages that should be considered before you decide whether or not an employee should undertake this task.

PAT Testing training courses are usually only 1-day courses. This means that any employees being trained will only miss one day of work. Courses normally cost between £200 and £300, and PAT testing equipment will have to be purchased or hired when the testing needs to take place. Other than this, though there will be no other costs. PAT testing companies can be quite expensive (depending on what needs doing) so there could be quite a significant saving. This costs saving is the main advantage of having an employee do the PAT testing.

Although you won’t have to pay for a company to come in, there are still the costs mentioned above when one of your employees does your PAT testing. Although this will save you money - will they be able to do the job up to the standard of someone trained to a more advanced level? As professional PAT testers do this regularly, they will be very thorough and are unlikely to make any mistake. If an employee is carrying out the task he/she will probably only have had one-days training and will only perform any PAT test once in a while. This means they are more likely to make a mistake, which could be costly to the company, both financially and in terms of safety. If only one of your employees is trained to perform the PAT Testing and he/she leaves then you would either have to train someone else, or hire a professional. This means that the money spent training this individual would have been wasted. There is also the issue of whether the employee trained has the time to do the task. Anytime spent on PAT Testing, is time spent away from doing his/her everyday tasks. Many companies have had their staff trained to perform their PAT testing, only to hire another company to do it anyway.

The main reason for having an employee doing your PAT testing is the potential cost savings. This is not all that should be taken into consideration though, as there are potential problem. Professional PAT testers have the expertise and knowledge to perform the tasks necessary to a high standard than is likely to be achieved by one of your employees who has only been on a one-day course and has little or no experience of PAT testing.

Andrew Marshall ©

PAT Testing