Health, safety and wellbeing

In December 2005, a full safety management review was conducted and in January 2006 the Argos and Homebase health and safety teams were merged together. The current team of 12 is led by our Health and Safety Manager, who is also chair of the British Retail Consortium’s Risk and Safety Policy Action Group, which ensures we keep abreast of current thinking and policy in this area.

A key aspect of the review was to develop an approach to health and safety that drew on best practice within Argos and Homebase, and to develop a system that was straightforward and simple for our colleagues to understand and use. We call this programme ‘Simply Safer’. We have taken a stepped approach to introducing this programme focusing our efforts on Argos first and then Homebase.

Key attributes were consultation with our health and safety champions, who were elected by employees at each of our locations and whose role is to represent the views of colleagues at regular health and safety meetings and during the implementation of our simply safer programme. We have also rationalised the number of risk assessments performed by our colleagues. For example, in Homebase we reduced the number of different assessments types from 180 down to 30 integrated templates, which can be tailored to suit individual site circumstances. The feedback from our colleagues on the introduction of this new way of working has been very positive.

We have a published health and safety policy statement declaring our responsibilities and our commitment to discharge these through our line management. This has been signed by the chief executive of Home Retail Group and the managing directors of Argos and Homebase. Download PDF

In order to make our health and safety policy statement effective, we have established a health and safety management, control and support structure as a framework for activity that reaches every part of our Group.

The Group HR Director is responsible for implementing the health and safety policy and has established and chairs a health and safety risk management group comprising senior management representatives from all areas of the business. The committee's role is to keep under review the effective management of health and safety across the Group and to provide the executive directors with appropriate advice and guidance.

The health and safety management group meets quarterly and minutes of the meeting are produced and circulated across the business. We recognise that different areas of our business need to be actively involved in health and safety management so to facilitate this we have set up a number of committees that report into the health and safety risk management group. All health and safety committee members are provided with information, attend update meetings and consult over health and safety issues. The minutes from all health and safety meetings are disseminated to staff via the health and safety champions and posted on the health and safety Intranet sites

Each store or site manager is responsible for implementation of the Group’s health and safety arrangements in their own store or site. In addition, it is our intention that every store and distribution centre will have an appointed health and safety champion (currently in place across Homebase and underway in Argos). They are responsible for representing the employees and promoting health and safety agenda in their location.

Each operational office and distribution centre also has a site health and safety committee chaired by an appropriate manager. We are currently in the process of rolling this into all stores and we expect this to be completed in 2007.

We provide health and safety training to all our new colleagues, mainly through the induction process. Specific health and safety training is also provided for those individuals required to manage and supervise others.

We regularly monitor our health and safety performance across the business. For example, stores undertake and record regular assessments, including all relevant fire safety checks. They also conduct a periodic checklist and there are various other checks based on the risk assessments and accident/incident experience (e.g. Ladder register, fire alarm checks etc.).

Every store conducts a formal self-audit on business critical issues which are collated and reviewed by line managers. Any failures can lead to disciplinary action. In addition, stores are regularly audited by the health and safety team. Action plans are produced for failing stores and the results are linked to bonuses. The health and safety champions are also involved in reviewing these and conducting re-audits on stores in their area.

We provide a bullying, harassment and stress help line which gives employees access to trained counsellors. In addition, all employees can be referred for face to face counselling through this service.

Health and safety performance

We track the safety performance of the business using the categories defined in the UK RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations). Our recent performance is shown in the graph.

We are pleased to report that the number of RIDDOR reportable incidents has reduced by 15% during the year. This is driven by a significant reduction in the number of incidents at Argos, which has reduced by 28%, as our ‘Simply Safer’ message and the introduction of new working practices has begun to take hold. This reduction is offset by an increase in incidents at Homebase which we believe is due to better reporting.

Our accident rate (the number of RIDDORs per 100,000 colleagues) has also improved. This methodology, recognised by the Heath and Safety Executive, takes into account changes in the size of the workforce when considering our safety performance. In 2007, the figure was 1,140 for the Group. This is a 12% improvement on the previous year.

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