Generally there are a few excellent suppliers out there and some rather less excellent. Go by reputation and cost - for a healthcare environment you will have a considerable sum to spend so you should get a really good discount. I buy my stuff from Arco, not the cheapest but a good reliable organisation.

As for individual shoes - one size does not fit all. You probably need to specify a few types of shoe(5 or 6 maybe) a mixture of normal and wide fitting with different styles and then make that the choice that the porters have. This way, if their feet hurt they only have themselves to blame. If you are specifying more than one style of shoe, you won't need trials.

I have been through this exact situation and its not going to be easy! Be certain for your justification for implementing the safety footwear and use risk assessment, incident reports (previous injury or near miss) and compare to what others in similar workplaces are doing e.g. what risks they have implemented safety footwear to protect against.
I would advise actually measuring peoples feet as UK/Euro sizes differ, left and right foot can be of different size etc. For the work of a porter you require a shoe that meets BS/EN 345 S3. Provide the best shoe you can afford and have a policy in place regarding care and maintenance/replacement and have each staff member sign a declaration that they have read and understand the policy. I have a note in mine stating that they do not have to sign to state that they agree with the content of the policy but that they understand it. Doesn't really matter if they agree or not!
Kevin

Boots is the only normal PPE item where we don't have a company standard item. That is, for eg helmets, there's a standard hard-hat that you get, likewise safety glasses, general manual handling gloves, hi-vis (though all those things are in a range of sizes, obviously).

For boots, we set a performance criterion (in our case EN ISO 20345 S3 or SB+P+E+WRU with ankle support and laces, zip or other positive fastening) and a budget and let people choose their own. They can either buy for themselves and make a claim for the money (in which case we also want to see the boots to check they aren't obviously dodgy chinese fakes) or pick something from one of our established suppliers catalogues in which case the company buys them.

Since adopting this approach we've had no complaints (compared to a minor trickle when it was a case of we held a stock of a couple of variants in a range of sizes and people had one of them). There's something about 'buy-in' here - because actually picking from a catalogue ought to result in more poor cases of poor fitting than if you get to try on a couple from stores and can choose what fits best. It seems that when people have made the choice themselves they accept the consequences more than if they perceive they had less choice.

We do have a relatively generous budget though.

regards, Ian SMith

Finding all this very useful. Please keep them coming.

Please also think hard about slip resistance. We have been working very hard to look at reducing slips and have been working with the Health and Safety labs who have now released guidance. This will be very helpful when choosing shoes as interestingly its not always the most expensive that have the best slip resistance

http://www.hsl.gov.uk/ne...orkplace-slips-and-trips

S/A you've got PM

another thought to throw into the pot is not to over spec them. We've had a history of people of slight build tripping over where they've fatigued wearing construction site boots simply because they had a trendy name on them.

In general the advice already given is good. I work in a power generation environment and an approach you may wish to consider is to give a supplier of safety kit such as Arco (Others exist) but not a direct manufacturer a call and invite them to send a rep round. The GOOD ones will be working with your best interest in mind and will be able to give you some very good advice based on feedback from other customers in a similar field. They will almost certainly also help to produce a bespoke list of footwear that meets your technical specification and cost consideration and be a wide enough choice that people will be happy. This route also results in a 24hr delivery and if done properly a returns policy should the shoes / boots not fit or "hurt" in some way. Other beneifts - bulk buying drives cost down, even if the bulk is bought over 12 months or so and other PPE, safety kit procurement issues may be resolved.

Go for a good supplier, get a rep in your office and talk to them, with if necessary some of the guys who can then help to choose and take "ownership" of the footwear issues for you,

Jim

If a member of staff said that their shoes were uncomfortable/painful I would not expect them to carry on wearing them. My point was for the style and brand of the shoe - not for the comfort. the comfort of the shoe is equally as import as the protection that the shoe is offering.