Health & Safety Chaos
So you’ve read in my diary that we’ve got a problem with accidents and sick leave.
This is mostly in our retail network but also in our distribution warehouse too.
The accidents seem to be silly things that could easily be avoided. Over the course of 2 weeks we had 3 people burn themselves while steaming stock, 1 person strain their back lifting stock bags, 2 people get cut when picking trolleys rammed into them and 1 person had a mannequin fall on their head.
With the sick leave we’ve had an increase of people calling in sick – just over twice as many in May and June than in March and April. Most of them still have 1 or 2 days paid sick leave left, but even once they’ve used it up and we’ve told them that any further sick leave will be unpaid, they still keep calling in sick. Mostly it’s just for 1 or 2 days then they come back to work. It’s not always on Mondays either – during the week too. It’s really hard for us to cover in the retail stores at short notice when people call in sick, and in the warehouse it can mean delays in getting stock out.
Any ideas on how we stop people having accidents and also reduce our sick leave? Our managers are open to strange and unusual ideas so please feel free to share anything that you know of even if it’s unusual!
Post your advice as a comment below. In the October issue of the HumanResources magazine we’ll publish the best answers and see what Flora does.
Sick leave, accidents or something else???? How exactly does a mannequin fall on ones head? unless the said employee is lying down, things above head height are dangerous. Staff need to be aware of and educated around safety processes and your organisation needs to have a strong safety culture.
All this sick leave – is it just the usual winter trend, how does it compare to last year? When was the last time you had your air conditioning serviced, and what is the standard of cleanliness in the kitchen and bathrooms? How about PC’s and shared equipment? Is it really a problem if staff are genuinely sick and staying at home, this prevents spreading it to other staff and community members. Perhaps you need a few more casuals to cover such absences, can some of your part timers do a few extra hours?
Analyse your data, have you got higher than usual work loads but still operating the same man hours? this is a recipe for accidents. Or have you implemented new stretch sales targets, or strategies without staff consultation and buy in? Are lay offs pending? And look at the managers, regions and sites, does one of them have staff with higher than average sick leave absences – you could have problems with lack of communication, engagement or even bullying.
How about sending some of your managers to the upcoming HRINZ PD session around safety (particularly staff behaviour), and provide positive feedback to staff about their work. Talk to other managers in similar organisations about what they are experiencing, and how they prevent and manage accidents and sick leave, share ideas.
There can be a number of factors that lead to higher sick leave and accidents. I would strongly suggest analysing your environment to identify problems and implement solutions, increase manager capability and engagement, motivate your staff, and build a safety culture.