Safety first: Training is key
Speed plays a large role in our industry. It impacts our operations on several different levels.
The marketing team is always looking for “speed to shelf” with new products, and innovative ways of grabbing customers’ attention. The operations folks are always looking to improve the speed of service to better serve the needs of customers, while the IT organization fights the good fight of keeping up with the lightning speed of technology.
In our never stop, make-it-happen-yesterday world, we can’t lose sight of our responsibility to take the time to provide our employees with the foundation they need to work safely. Proper safety training supported by a qualified mentor and the right resources will create a solid foundation for your team members to flourish.
It doesn’t take long for those in the world of retail to understand the value of hiring the most qualified person. A store staffed with individuals with the right skills, positive attitudes, and an understanding of the importance of safety makes for a low maintenance and highly productive store. Stores staffed with individuals who require a higher level of supervision and receive inadequate training demand so much more of your resources and usually fail to meet your expectations. Consider all the time and money invested in our recruiting efforts to find the individuals with the right skills and motivation. We defeat ourselves by investing time and money in hiring that person if we fail to provide them with the safety training they need to maintain a safe work environment.
Safety should be our first concern when we introduce a new person to our work environment – this is where self-discipline comes into play. Due to the nature of our business, in most cases we hire based on an immediate need as opposed to recruiting to improve the strength of our front line people. Our industry always seems to be reactionary in our hiring practices. We wait until we need “a person to cover a third shift” , leaving it impossible to take our time filling that spot. The formula for failure is to hire an individual out of need, and then throw the person into a checkout
As loss prevention professionals or operation leaders, it is important that we help our front line managers recognize the value and the greater return of making sure our new hires understand what it means to work safely before we count on them to work unsupervised.
As an industry, we must put the brakes on this “warm body” approach to filling time slots on the work schedule. The immediate return may prevent the store manager from working that specific Saturday night, but at what expense in the long run?
We need to properly equip our new hires through appropriate and timely training practices. It is a matter of culture. Organizations who teach training first versus throwing a warm body to the wolves are going to reap significant rewards. And not just for the short term. Proper training increases the odds of success and, perhaps, future advancement. You may find that person is the next employee who will rise through the ranks of your organization. If your culture is one that tends to be short sighted, and does not place a premium on safety training then plan on spending a great deal of time processing new hire paperwork. The employees with the skills needed for our industry are looking for organizations that offer the greatest potential for success. Working in a safe environment is one of the first points any qualified individual will look for when searching for a job.