Safety management system for retailers
Running a retail business means managing staff, customers, deliveries and day-to-day operations. Health and safety can sometimes feel difficult to prioritise, particularly for smaller businesses without dedicated health and safety resources.
This guide has been developed to help retailers put practical systems in place that support safer workplaces.
It introduces a simple Safety Management System (SMS) based on the Plan, Do, Check, Act approach and provides practical steps that can be adapted to suit businesses of different sizes. The guide is designed to work alongside ShopCare’s hazard sheets and templates. Together, these resources provide a practical framework for managing health and safety in a retail environment.
About the guide
The guide focuses on the foundations of good health and safety management. It covers:
- Health and safety policies
- Identifying hazards and managing risks
- Worker engagement
- Training and inductions
- Incident reporting
- Emergency planning
- Monitoring and review
- Continuous improvement
The content has been written in plain language and is intended to help retailers build systems that are practical, manageable and suited to their workplace.
Using the resources below
The guide, hazard sheets and templates have been designed to work together.
Start by reading the guide and identifying the systems your business already has in place.
The hazard sheets provide practical guidance on common retail risks, while the templates can be adapted for use in your own workplace. Businesses may choose to use all of the resources or start with the areas most relevant to their operations.
The templates have been developed to reduce the amount of work required to establish basic health and safety systems and records.
Creating a safer workplace doesn’t need to be complicated.
Small improvements made consistently can make a significant difference to the safety and wellbeing of workers, customers and visitors. These resources have been developed to help retailers take practical steps and build systems that can grow alongside their business.