When it comes to injuries in your stores, prevention is the best medicine. But when you can’t prevent them, it’s important to know how to respond.
This Retailer’s Guide describes how to prevent injuries and offers some ideas of how to respond to accidents. As with all sensitive issues, use this Retailer’s Guide as starting point for crafting your own injury response plan.
PREVENTION PLANNING
Of course, prevention is always the best medicine, but let’s face it: accidents do happen.
Susan Guest, a Corporate Account Manager at Ontario Service Safety Alliance (OSSA), says the best place to begin planning prevention measures is at the top. She says retail management must look at all store operations and ensure they comply with provincial safety standards. |
More than that, retailers must make safety an integral part of the work routine.
"The idea is not to have a separate health and safety binder over in the corner. You want to implement it. When you do the job, you do the job safely," says Guest.
Retailers who want to make safety a hallmark of their company’s culture must integrate safety concerns into performance reviews, train employees on safety and make management accountable for store safety.
Preventing accidents requires a serious plan and attention to detail. Here are some details to consider in your planning:
lifting training. Retail staff constantly move goods from one place to another and injuries are bound to happen. One employee may be able to lift a case of pop without breaking a sweat and another may throw out his back. |
