Posted By craig eames
Hello,

Please can anyone offer some help or advice? I am trying to get my foot in the door in a career in health and safety, i have recently completed my Nebosh Cert. and I have a interview for a national supermarket chain.

I am aware of the normal things to look at ie. slips,trips, manual handling etc, but can anybody offer me some other things to look at in preparation for my interview?

any help no matter how simple would be gratefully appreciated

Thanks
Craig

Posted By tez
Might be worth looking to see if they have a Large Authority Partnership Arrangement with the LA.(LAP) or LOPP.

Try this link

http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/index.htm

If the document is closed i cannot allow you access-but it might be worth speaking to them or their LA as they might have had a recent Safety Review.

Have a peak via HSE website at Fit 3 work-again supermarkets ( some will have visits to do with bakeries) and other topics.

Regards

Posted By Gff
There is a lot to think about here's a list and most of it is to do with public safety

Car Parks
Surfaces, trolleys, traffic routes pedestrian routes, desire lines/routes, barriers (father was killed by a unsecured barrier in a super m car park in Cardiff, his son was in the car at the time of the incident), travelling people setting up camp, aco drains and other surface water drains.

Warehouse yard
Fork lifts (CB and Reach, which one can be used out doors) drain covers surfaces, racking, containers perimeter security (recently and old lady gained access to the yard taking a short cut through a hole in the fence and got knocked down by a reversing lorry), Compactors, Chemical product storage, warehouse operations.

Plant and equipment
goods/passenger Lifts, chiller packs, cooling systems, lighting, fire alarm systems, smoke vents, refrigerant gases, ammonia systems (still some LT ammonia systems in cold stores and distribution centres). Gas, electricity.

Petrol Forecourt
Petrol and diesel spillages, LPG gas (recently an explosion occurred in a forecourt kiosk the LPG pump was leaking the fault caused and alarm in the kiosk, the attendance went out to put a cone at the pump, the gas flowed up through conduit into the kiosk, allegedly the a/c switched on an caused and explosion, lucky the attendant was outside at the time.

Shop Floor
entrance matting spillages of food and liquid, contractors work overlapping with shoppers and store operations.

Best to take this list and go for a good long walk round your local store and see what you add to it and identify what is in place to mitigate associated risks and what you could do that would improve safety.

Number one to the store managers agenda is do not ever ever ever affect trading by restricting access to aisle or the store or products they don't care about safety

I worked in this environment for 10 years if you have any specific questions please ask

Posted By Darren J Fraser
Is the interview at a supermarket ?

the reason for asking is that during the interview I would ask if they would accompany you on a walk around of the facility (even if just the customer side) and point out areas that you feel could be improved, some examples already stated, or failing that arrive early have a walk round and make some notes and how you would look at resolving them.

This would be a clear demonstration of you attention to detail, if you are not sure of anything ask if they would consider the process being observed as standard practice.

Good luck with the interview, and remember it is a 2 way process, you are interviewing them as well, so the above will give you some idea of their attitude to H&S.

If at a head office, you could do the same exercise but for the offices.

Posted By Gff
is the interview in Leeds?

Posted By Pete48
Craig, something else to ponder. Most of the main supermarket chains that i have visited do have very formal procedural systems in place for their identified hazards which include all the food safety and hygiene stuff as well as the industrial stuff.
You may want to re -read the posting about the alleged state of a supermarket when visited by the person who made that post.
Perhaps your approach to managing safety is as important as any detailed knowledge about the industry? That is almost certainly written in their procedures already and there is probably a head office function who will guide on health and safety standards. So think about why they might want to employ a safety person as well as what knowledge they are looking for?