As a small business owner of a retail store, you’re responsible for many items such as ordering products, customer service, and business operations. However, one of your most significant responsibilities is to create a safe work environment for your employees.
The CDC currently lists the retail industry as having the highest risk for workplace violence. With employees spending most of their day handling money and working with customers, it’s easy to see how retail employees are at a higher risk.
Along with workplace violence, retail workers face hazards that can lead to injuries and accidents throughout their day. One way to lower the risks of injuries, accidents, and violence is to establish a culture that focuses on workplace safety.
Providing your team with proper training, installing security systems, and keeping them covered with essential insurance coverage like workers’ compensation can go a long way in keeping your retail employees safe.
Even though retail environments aren’t inherently as dangerous as construction or health care workplaces, retail employees still face a wide range of hazards throughout the workday. For example, a retail employee continuously moves products, putting themselves at risk of suffering a muscular injury.
Along with lifting injuries, several other injuries could affect a business’ retail staff. Some of these injuries include:
Of the injuries on the list, muscular injuries and sprains occur most often. With the constant need to move products, set up displays, and work in the backroom, team members are at high risk of pulling a muscle.
It’s also crucial that employees have additional help when moving heavy objects. One of the leading causes of lifting-related injuries is lifting above capacity. Encouraging workers to ask others for assistance or using moving-aids is a great way to prevent these injuries from occurring.
Of the injuries on the list, muscular injuries and sprains occur most often. With the constant need to move products, set up displays, and work in the backroom, team members are at high risk of pulling a muscle.
It’s also crucial that employees have additional help when moving heavy objects. One of the leading causes of lifting-related injuries is lifting above capacity. Encouraging workers to ask others for assistance or using moving-aids is a great way to prevent these injuries from occurring.
Anyone who has worked in a retail environment understands how fast-paced it can be. Constantly attending to customers, fixing displays, restocking products, and organizing the stockroom is a lot to manage and often means moving quickly throughout the store, which can lead to falls, trips, and slips.
Often the number one cause of falls, trips, and slips has to do with the product being left in aisleways or clogging up the stockroom. Spills are also another major cause of slips and pose a hazard to everyone in the store, not just employees.
It’s something every retail business owner hopes never happens but unfortunately does—customer violence. With team members working closely with the public, altercations occur more frequently than most people realize, and verbal abuse is common. Thankfully, extreme violence isn’t as frequent; however, it still happens.
To help prevent customer violence from occurring and decrease the risk of extreme violence, OHS recommends retail workers take the following precautions:
Since most retail environments involve workers continuously moving products from the stockroom to the floor, the likelihood of an object falling off a shelf or pallet and striking a team member is high.
While most of the injuries caused by falling objects tend to be minor, there is a chance that a large item could do significant damage. To lessen the chance of these incidents occurring, staff should avoid stacking boxes higher than five feet unless supported by a shelving unit.
Other ways to avoid falling object injuries include:
With the various hazards that retail employees face daily, it’s up to company leadership to keep staff safe. While employers can’t mitigate every risk, there are several steps small business owners can take to provide a safe work environment.
Here are five tips to help your organization improve workplace safety for all your retail team members.
It’s impossible to mitigate every risk, but implementing some of the safety measures above will help reduce the chance of workplace injury happening to one of your team members. If someone on your retail team does get injured while performing their job, workers’ compensation insurance may cover their medical costs and provide benefits until they can return to work.
It’s impossible to mitigate every risk, but implementing some of the safety measures above will help reduce the chance of workplace injury happening to one of your team members. If someone on your retail team does get injured while performing their job, workers’ compensation insurance may cover their medical costs and provide benefits until they can return to work.
Thanks for reading! Please note that this content is intended for educational purposes only. As best practices change regularly, you should refer to your trusted advisor for specific counsel. If you’re a small business owner, learn more about workplace safety or check your workers’ comp rate in 3 minutes.
