Looking after retail staff who work alone
Retail is less regulated than other high risk industries, but it has its share of risks too. Retail is public facing. You don’t know who is coming in off the streets. Combined with long opening hours, cash handling and sometimes staff working on their own you end up with some significant safety challenges
What you need to do by law
The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published two leaflets that set out your obligations as an employer in retail. The first Working alone – Health and safety guidance on the risks of lone working explains what you need to do when staff work alone. The second Managing work-related violence in licensed and retail premises tells you how to minimise risks from violent customers.
The starting point is a risk assessment. Lone workers should not be at a higher risk than other workers. So you need to think about hazards, supervision, monitoring and training. What policies do you need to put in place? How should incidents be escalated?
Keep your staff happy and minimise your turnover
Retail can be a stressful environment with a high staff turnover. Doing the right thing on your work safety policies helps show you care.
Ok Alone
Ok Alone keeps you in touch with your staff when they work alone and helps ensure they are safe. With Ok Alone incidents are easily reported and escalated according to your company’s policy. Contact us today to find out more.
The Ok Alone team writes informative articles about lone working. Through our articles, we aim to educate readers on the benefits and best practices of using our lone worker app, and how Ok Alone can help mitigate risks and enhance communication between workers and monitors. Learn about other areas including legislation, risk management, and legal compliance plus lone worker features such as man down, high-risk check ins and location monitoring.