Going shopping rarely strikes anyone as a potentially dangerous activity. Shop accidents are, however, surprisingly common. The most common retail accidents leading to shoppers or shop employees sustaining personal injuries are centred on incidents involving slips, trips and falls.
According to the HSE the workplace injury rate is higher than average in the wholesale/ retail sector, this could be attributed to poor house keeping or a lack of knowledge when it comes to putting in place the correct policies and procedures. Click the HSE link above for some interesting facts and figures.
The H&S procedures that are required to help manage and maintain a safer working environment are as follows:
• Fire Risk Assessment
• System for identifying required training of employees (e.g. fire safety, mobility evac, use of any specific work equipment), delivery, documentation and revision of training.
• Policy and arrangements for use of agency workers, temps and part time employees (including specific assessments for young persons under 18)
• A safe shop. Meaning a system for regular inspection of displays, fixtures, fittings, mirrors, daily housekeeping – Preventing slips, trips and falls.
• Policy and procedure for security, cash handling and lone working.
• Risk assessment for collections/ deliveries and movement of stock (manual handling, use of knives, use of steps/ ladders)
• Risk assessment for any creative activities and specific customer events.
• Coordination of H&S arrangements in shared premises/ other units.
• Safe standards of working carried out by any sub-contractors (e.g. your cleaners/ gardeners etc).
• First aid needs assessment.
If you are unsure where to start or need help developing risk assessments, writing policies etc. Safewell provides a professional H&S consultancy service, be it a one off visit or an ongoing retained service. We can help.
We have worked with Safewell for many years and are retained clients, so we have developed an excellent working relationship with the team. However, this really came into its own when Covid 19 appeared.
As a Plumbing and Heating business, we were able to carry on working during the lockdown but only for responding to emergencies. We were obviously very concerned about the health and safety of our employees and before we even had chance to get in touch with Safewell, they had emailed us offering their assistance. It is hard to put down on paper how that made us feel - we like everyone else felt totally at sea, which way to turn, what to do? But Safewell were there guiding, supporting and being totally brilliant. Their attention to detail is very impressive and reassuring and we feel able to ask lots of questions without feeling silly.
During the pandemic Safewell helped us to write risk assessments, safety procedures and protocols. They kept in touch regularly, issuing new guidance as soon as it appeared and checking in with us. They held group Q&A sessions over Zoom which were helpful, and knowing other businesses were facing the same challenges and having the opportunity to discuss issues was invaluable. Their help during the preparation for a full return to work was brilliant, they enabled us to be fully prepared and feel in control, and when we had our first case of Covid within the team, because we had planned our response it felt ok.
I think our team felt very reassured by our robust approach and that our office was Covid secure. We are extremely grateful to all the team at Safewell
