A topic of concern of running a retail business is keeping your inventory, customers, and employees safe at all times. It is important to follow these steps to ensure a safe environment and to prevent a potential crisis at your business.
Staff Training
Safety should always be a top priority when running a business. It is essential to dedicate time to thoroughly training each team member on protocols to follow in the event of an emergency. Be sure to address how employees should respond to demands, be aware of suspect details and keep customers safe all while following your emergency cash drawer protocol.
Cash Management
As previously mentioned, your employees should be trained on the cash management policies in place to prevent loss of a crisis. In addition, your business should have secure equipment to keep employees safe and dissuade suspects from potential crime. Depending on your specific retail environment, there are wide arrays of cash handling equipment to make transactions convenient and safe.
Injury Prevention
Keeping employees and customers safe and injury-free is imperative. Tripping, falling or slipping in your business is, always a concern so employees must act quickly with spills, blocked aisles and sloppy shelf inventory. Prevention of injuries also means having the right tools and processes in place when dealing with possible theft, violence and shoplifting incidents. Additional precautions may be necessary depending on your type of retail store or if you are in a high crime area. Some businesses are opting to pass thru cabinets and even bulletproof glass windows, deal trays and metal frames.
Make Security a Priority
Unfortunately, Homicide, robbery, aggravated assault and mass shootings are on the rise. That’s why that it is growing increasingly important to make sure you are proactive in protecting your company as well as everyone inside it. Often enough, safety procedures must be supplemented with increased security measures to ensure the safety of those present at the time of a violent incident. Security features such as surveillance equipment, guards, signage and also physical barriers such as protective glass are becoming more in demanding as violence continues to rise.
Be Pro-Active
Identifying potential problems before they happen is vital when it comes to overall safety. You and your employees should consistently be promoting safety evaluating work areas and looking for possible safety risks. Assessing current procedures frequently and getting employee’s input is also important to make sure you are evolving your workplace safety as needed.
Investigate Incidents
If an incident small or large ever occurs at your establishment it’s critical evaluate and do a thorough investigation. By understanding why and how the incident occurred you and your employees are able to foresee and prevent it from happening again in the future. You can then adopt policies and update your staff on changes to the current protocol making sure similar incidents do not recur.
Ensuring staff is thoroughly trained, making sure you cash management equipment is secure, taking injury precautions and keeping the security of your store top of mind are all helpful things to consider when evaluating your current safety situation. However, it is crucial to remember there are countless other ways of maintaining safety in the workplace and that technologies are constantly evolving. Creating a safe environment for workers and customers should always remain a primary concern for any retail store operation.
Find out how Creative Industries can help you and your team stay safe! Contact Creative Industries for a consult today!