We continue to be fully committed to protecting the health and safety of employees, contractors and customers when in our stores. We use our data systems to identify store accident causes and trends, and focus on areas of improvement.
In 2010-11 we concentrated on accident and fire prevention through the launch of new management tools.
For example, new log books allow all store managers to continually improve health and safety records and prevent accidents and fires. A ‘compliance tracker’ is now in place at BHS and is being trialled in our Burton stores.
With this we have issued a new fire safety induction pack and risk assessment template aimed at store managers. These are designed to educate those who are responsible for fire prevention, detection and alarm systems and give them guidance on how to complete risk assessments and legally required fire safety checks.
A bespoke DVD has been produced to demonstrate further to employees what they should be looking out for, as well as footage of reconstructed fires in our stores.
Training is essential for store staff so a monitoring system has been developed to easily document all employees’ health and safety, fire safety, personal safety and store accessibility training records. We continue to provide specific training for employees, such as visual merchandisers – the people responsible for assembling the eye-catching displays in our store windows.
In addition, all of our Arcadia area safety representatives and at least one member of management from each BHS store will attend one of our bespoke fire risk assessment courses. We have already trained 150 people on this topic.
A proud moment came in May 2011 when the work of our Risk Management Team was officially recognised. Arcadia won the European Risk Management Team of the Year Award. The team was particularly pleased to win this year, given that the shortlist included Dixons, Tesco and Capital Shopping Centres.
Store and website accessibility
Of course, our health and safety activities extend into our interaction with customers. It is our ongoing aim to improve the accessibility of our stores for all customers, including those who are disabled. All our brand websites have achieved Web Accessibility Initiative AA rating making them more accessible to people with disabilities.
To ensure all employees are aware of the accessibility requirements of the Equality Act 2010, we have developed a bespoke DVD and booklet that have been shown to all store staff. The DVD is subtitled and the booklet is available in Braille and large font.
We have introduced a mystery shopper programme, including customers with a disability, to provide useful insight and feedback to us about store accessibility. This helps us to decide which actions we should take and informs our store development and accessibility audit for new or modernised stores.
