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DaisyMaisy  
#1 Posted : 18 December 2012 14:25:59(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
DaisyMaisy

Hi all I am about to take on a new job as H&S Manager for a quickly expanding retail outlet. I have worked occasionally for them and identified a number of areas requiring attention. They have some areas of h&s covered. The senior managers are very protective of the MD being involved in H&S (my first argument), there is no budget - 'if they have a budget they will spend it' (MDs words), they are opening stores too quickly and without ensuring everything is compliant before opening. and a number of others. I am putting plan together of the areas needing to be tackled quickly and a process- i.e. the highest risks but would be interested and useful to know if anyone else has had this issue with their senior management and any suggestions from their own experiences?
jwk  
#2 Posted : 18 December 2012 14:41:34(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
jwk

Welcome to the wacky world of Retail! We have a large acquisition programme at the minutes, and even though our shops are highly profitable there's an idea that we should only be spending money on our charitable aims, and not on e.g. making sure our shop-workers have safe and healthy environments. So, some top tips:

Fire is a permanent bugbear, the biggest safety issue in our shops is control of space and basic housekeeping; if there's a fire exit they'll block it, if there's an 'empty' cupboard (albeit full of electricals) they'll fill it, usually with anything that burns. It's a cultural issue, and very persistent. We're looking at new ways of controlling stock-flow, which should help and will also help profitability, as it happens.

Get involved in the acquisition process as early as you can. We now have an approved design, and a shopping list of minimum build standards, but we only got that be proving that it costs less to get these things (fire escapes, travel distances, welfare provision, trip hazards) right in the fit-out than it does to fix them once the shop is trading. Our head of property is a former LA H&S enforcer, which helps us, but he's needed pressure from us in the face of Directors looking only to cut costs.

One thing we have done is ruled out certain types of premises from the word go; depending on the kind of retailing you're going in for this may be relevant to you. We will no longer contemplate a single-entrance lock-up high street shop, for example; it has to have at least two escape routes.

Get a good and reliable asbestos service, some of your new shops will have ACMs and good advice is better than cheap bad advice.

Keep pushing; it took us a year of frustration before our acquisition programme came good, and we had to challenge decisions at every stage. Now we have new shops which are, at root, healthy and safe. They still put bags of flammables in front of fire exits though....

And on that note, Fire & Rescue services are active in visiting shops before Xmas as they know that that's when huge amounts of stock come in, and that's when exits get blocked,

John
A Kurdziel  
#3 Posted : 18 December 2012 15:14:33(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
A Kurdziel

Having read this thread this has come up
http://www.yorkpress.co....ashion_shop_fined___27k/

Interesting what with the comments on protecting fire escape routes
jwk  
#4 Posted : 18 December 2012 15:19:14(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
jwk

The recent 27K for blocked escapes is small beer; I remember the Co-Op got £120K+ for offences inclluding blocked fire escapes. But try telling that to a Retail director in charge of a £40 million turnover business... Especially one that's never had to stand in the dock herself....

John
Katrina_bee  
#5 Posted : 18 December 2012 15:24:21(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Katrina_bee

I worked for a retail company with the same views as yours. They were not interested in spending any money on H&S matters unless A. they were under investigation or B. they could see how beneficial to their pockets changes could be. (particularly making changes which resulted in less liability claims from customers).

As with jwk, fire safety always seemed to be the biggest issue because no matter how many times store managers and employees were trained in fire safety, you would walk into a store and still find blocked doorways and routes.

I had the same issue with the company opening stores at a ridiculour rate without ensuring good standards before opening them. In the 3 years i worked there the company went from 350 stores to 900. There was only myself and one other H&S manager and unlike John above, we had no say in new store openings - we just had to deal with them once they had opened - there were many times we would not even be told of new stores until after they had opened.
They made 3 aquisitions whilst i worked for them, we wouldn't know anything until the last minute then BANG! all hands on deck!! Head Office employees were expected to take on the extra workloads without so much as a thanks.

I really hope the management team sit up and notice your suggestions. I felt as if i spent the whole time banging my head against a brick wall...

K
jwk  
#6 Posted : 18 December 2012 15:25:44(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
jwk

And on another tack; significant risks in retailing:

Fire, and don't forget Arson (where are the bins?)
Housekeeping, slips, trips and falls
Lone working/stress/abuse; there's a very good HSE guide about lone-working in retail
Handling, especially if you're selling things like furniture which can't easily be split into small packages, but don't forget to ask how stuff gets onto high shelves
Tagging in clothes shops; we get a lot of minor injuries from the use of tagging guns, and without controls there's a risk of cross-infection
Road risks for delivery drivers and roving managers etc
Asbestos

The rest is the usual FM type stuff, relatively low incidence but still need watching;; things like gas and electrical safety, property maintenance and so on,

John
Katrina_bee  
#7 Posted : 18 December 2012 15:36:21(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Katrina_bee

As well as H&S i was also in charge of the waste management - as John says, think about where your bins are cited - are they lockable?, in a locked yard or kept on a back street?
Some stores may be in high risk areas where bins will be stolen or set alight.

We also had problems in some places with drug users and the homeless. Procedures for what to do in these instances should be thought about perhaps...

Also think about not just your responsibilities but if any of the stores are concessions of other stores - they have duties in with contracts towards maintenance and repair?

K
DP  
#8 Posted : 18 December 2012 15:41:22(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
DP

Daisy - you are entering into retail at a very interesting time and you may well be tested in the coming months - on the face of it you'd would think that will all the de-regulation we are seeing that retail would be quite - I see this completely differently.

We've seen 3 day reportable got to 7.
The wide introduction of Primary Authorities keeping regulators out of retail premises (under certain circumstances)
The Gov introducing measures to classify shops an such premises as low risk and the subsequent reduction of LA inspections
We have the proposal on the table for the removal from L73 the duty to report MOTP accidents - this is coming too.

Despite what ever people think I can assure you managing safety in retail is not about people pushing shopping trolleys and presents much more of a risk that this government wants to believe. Or is being led to believe by their cronies in the big retailers (and I mean massive) who don’t want enforcers in - read the prosecutions its obvious who these people are.

We are about to see IMO a backlash in the coming months and years from the regulators who are out there ( and still with us). The only time you'll see LA's in your premises will be via complaints from staff or the public - I ask you is this what we want enforcement to be??

Unions will drive up complaints and EHO will grasp the opportunity to get in and do their bit and you know what I don’t blame either of them one bit…..

PM if you need anything specific?
Ron Hunter  
#9 Posted : 18 December 2012 17:01:34(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Ron Hunter

You have to start winning over hearts and minds, and be aware of the whole management structure. No point in you impressing standards on a shop manager only to have the area manager come along behind you and contradict you.
KieranD  
#10 Posted : 18 December 2012 17:13:29(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
KieranD

If you want to action Ron Hunter's incisive observation :
'You have to start winning over hearts and minds, and be aware of the whole management structure'.
include these amongst your priorities for the next 4 months:
1. make sure that Santa or someone else who cares for you gives you a copy of 'The Art of Woo. Using persuasion to sell your ideas', G Richard Shell & M Moussa, Capstone, 2008;
2. spend 55 minutes a week with your own coach to keep you on track in your efforts to 'win over hearts and minds': as Shell & Moussa explain to work out how to leverage your own influence on your M D, someone influencing you to achieve this end can meet the scale of your 'mammoth' task
DaisyMaisy  
#11 Posted : 18 December 2012 17:29:51(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
DaisyMaisy

thanks all so much I have to say alot of the views are exactly those have experienced as a consultant with them and soon to be ongoing no doubt. i have taken a number of very good ponts made by all of you for my plan moving forward. thanks again all so much
bye for now
Canopener  
#12 Posted : 18 December 2012 19:38:55(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Canopener

Some really interesting insights into the retail sector. And it helps add some perspective into a recent post on the careers forum (http://forum.iosh.co.uk/default.aspx?g=posts&t=107524) in which the poster asserted

"As a employee in the commercial sector ( our company lives or dies on our profitability, no bail out from the taxpayer), it always amazes me that those funded by the taxpayer can wiggle out of their statuary responsibilities by saying they are hard up.

If we did that we would be accused of putting profit before lives"

As if!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good luck DaisyMaisy
DaisyMaisy  
#13 Posted : 18 December 2012 19:51:27(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
DaisyMaisy

thanks canopener - good reference. thanks for the good luck - think I am going to need it!
Ron Hunter  
#14 Posted : 18 December 2012 22:12:16(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Ron Hunter

Pondering further the Header of this post, I was reminded of a recent motorway trip when I was passed at speed by a very hairy pachyderm travelling in the inside lane. It was a mammoth undertaking.

Other candidates for worst joke of the decade are available.
DaisyMaisy  
#15 Posted : 19 December 2012 14:20:33(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
DaisyMaisy

ron hunter wrote:
Pondering further the Header of this post, I was reminded of a recent motorway trip when I was passed at speed by a very hairy pachyderm travelling in the inside lane. It was a mammoth undertaking.

Other candidates for worst joke of the decade are available.

thought you may have included 'mammomth tusk ahead'!
Graham Bullough  
#16 Posted : 19 December 2012 14:48:15(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Graham Bullough

ron hunter - Believe it or not, a friend of mine had a similar experience to you. However, it wasn't on a motorway, it was a dual lane TRUNK road!

Another thought - if the mammoth in an inner lane was able to undertake you on the motorway, perhaps you were unnecessarily hogging an outer lane!!! :-)
sadlass  
#17 Posted : 19 December 2012 23:01:55(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
sadlass

Daisy

Suggest you read Duncan Spencer / Chris Jerman recent book 'Risk Led Safety' (see Amazon). They are from retail sector, although the book is aimed at, and valuable to, any or all H&S people. Very strategic yet pragmatic.

Kierans suggestion's good - extend your reading to include influence, communication and management not just strict H&S.
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