Retail Recovery | restructuring, safety risks and staff absence

Slow post-pandemic recovery, recruitment challenges and COVID-19 continue to create an onslaught of employment and safety-related obstacles for retailers to navigate. Together, these disrupting factors are prompting many businesses to perform restructuring exercises in a bid to cut costs, ensure operations are as efficient as possible, and maintain sufficient staffing levels.

In our upcoming webinar exclusively for retailers, WorkNest’s industry experts and BIRA CEO Andrew Goodacre will be taking a closer look at some of the sector’s most pressing issues, including how to ensure safety standards don’t slip when operating a leaner team, latest best practice for managing COVID-related risks, and the steps required to carry out restructuring exercises compliantly.

5 May at 2.00 pm

As retailers are well aware, the cost of living crisis is hitting consumers’ pockets hard, resulting in lower than expected retail sales at the start of the year as households’ disposable income declines. Meanwhile, shifts in shopping behaviour continues to drive e-commerce growth, leading to a slow post-pandemic recovery for many bricks-and-mortar stores. And to add further fuel the fire, a mass exodus of workers post-Brexit, coupled with ongoing COVID-related absences, mean staffing shortages remain rife in the retail sector.

Many retailers we’re speaking to right now are understandably keen to get their operations back on track, with a focus on three key areas:

• Cutting costs and improving operational efficiencies
• Tackling staff shortages
• Combating health and safety risks, as well as those relating to COVID-19

During this free, interactive 60-minute session, WorkNest’s Principal Health & Safety Consultant Charles Spencer, Senior Solicitor Charlotte Morris from our sister company esphr from WorkNest, and BIRA CEO Andrew Goodacre will be teaming up to offer some much-needed guidance on these matters, including:

• How to conduct restructuring exercises (such as changing an employee’s hours, place of work, duties or pay) effectively and compliantly
• How to manage COVID-related absences and protect vulnerable employees
• Practical ways to mitigate health and safety risks (such as lone workers, first aiders and young workers) when operating leaner teams
• What ongoing management of COVID risk should look like now that legal restrictions have been lifted

We’ll be rounding off the session with a live Q&A, so if you have a burning employment or health and safety query you would like our industry experts to answer, submit it in advance via the registration form or use the chat box during the webinar.

Register below

Meet our hosts

Charles Spencer

Principal Health & Safety Consultant, WorkNest

Colleague Spotlight

Charlotte Morris

Senior Solicitor, esphr from WorkNest

Andrew Goodacre

CEO, BIRA

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