Glenda Jones manages several DVD rental outlets scattered across the metropolitan area. Each outlet has a small core of permanent staff, who generally are required to work 8 hour shifts (9 am - 5 pm and 5 pm – 1 am), so that the stores are open longer than their competitors, and in order to provide the best customer service standards. There are also several casual staff who come as required in the busier periods, especially at the weekends. In general, the employees at the outlets are friendly, responsible and work well together, though Glenda has been a little concerned lately as she has noticed some of the older male employees can be a little “bossy” with the junior staff, especially the young girls.
Glenda does all the training of the staff with regards to the procedures required to fulfill their roles of customer service. She also gives them a quick talk about safety procedures – such as locking up, climbing on ladders and using and carrying equipment. Safety has never been an issue for Glenda, as she sees that the workplaces are quite low risk – being retail establishments in large shopping complexes. She is however aware of her responsibilities as a manager, and she doesn’t want anyone getting hurt. Apart from the personal costs, she has her staffing levels finely tuned, and she doesn’t want to risk people being away from work because of injury.
Glenda’s accident, near miss, and injury statistics are similar to other groups of stores in the chain. The main injury reported is back injury caused by incorrect lifting: this is most likely to occur when boxes of newly released DVD’s arrive and the staff off-load them into the back room before sorting and coding them. The DVD’s then have to be placed on the shelves – and as many of the shelves are quite high or low, there are also injuries from back strain. Falls account for the third largest group of injuries – these occur as staff are required to put up display materials such as posters, and there have been instances of overbalancing or falling from ladders when display materials are changed. Lately, Glenda has also noted the evening shift staff seem to be reporting more injuries than the day staff, and that on a few occasions, staff have reported injuries such as a burn from the kettle they use to make their drinks, and tripping over personal items stacked in the staff room such as bikes and backpacks.
Glenda has been benchmarking the injuries reported by her employees against those of the other stores in the chain, and up until recently the injuries of her staff are below the benchmarks set for the company. However, things have changed recently. The last quarter’s figures show a marked increase on falls in all but one of the stores that she manages. She feels her own personal efficiency has decreased as she has had to alter rosters to manage these injuries. Clearly she will have to manage this increase in accidents before it becomes even more serious. She calls in consultants to help her with this task.