• "Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem." - J. Krishnamurti

• 1001 Ways to Market your Services. Author: Rick Crandall. Publisher: Contemporary Books. If even the thought of selling turns you off, this book provides you with hundreds of tried and tested innovating marketing ideas that work, whether your customers are internal or external.

• www.macquariedictionary.com.au Here is the site to got to find out the spelling of words, find their meaning and also checkout Australian slang. You can also download MacQuarie as your computer’s spellchecker.

You are no doubt aware of the burgeoning increase in the number of claims for damages that are being sought by aggrieved customers and staff all over the world. A recent claim involved a woman who chipped a tooth after walking into an automatic door that failed to open as she approached. Another claimed medical expenses and damages after twisting an ankle caused by the heel of her shoe being caught between two floor tiles. Countless others have sued after falling and fracturing limbs on slippery floors or receiving lacerations from the jagged edges of old or broken furniture and equipment.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg for what is becoming a serious situation for all businesses. Like it or not, we live in a world that is becoming more litigious everyday and as more and more lawyers adopt a policy of being paid on a percentage of damages awarded to their respective clients, the situation promises to only get worse.

Not that business owners should ever have needed to be forced to provide a safe working environment for customers and staff, but now the non-provision of such threatens the very existence of the business itself. And so it should.

So what can one do to ensure maximum safety for all?

If you are really serious about staff and customer safety, the first thing to do is engage the services of a qualified Occupational Health and Safety consultant to come to your place of business and conduct a ‘safety audit’. Clients who have done so report being ‘blown away’ by the number of safety issues raised.

Some of the items included: loose floor tiles, curled up corners on floor-mats, toxic solvents in kitchen cupboards, frayed electrical cords, non installation of electrical cut-out switches, broken chairs, desks, and other office furniture, jagged edges on shelving and display cabinets, shiny floor tiles in wet areas, the list goes on. In manufacturing businesses, the safety requirements are even more extensive.

The message is PLEASE make safety at your place of business a top priority. Not just because a damages claim my wipe you out, but more importantly, if you don’t put people before profits, you won’t have any profits to worry about.

Another idea is to appoint a safety officer. A person whose responsibility it is to periodically check all aspects of the company’s safety policy and to also be the conduit to alert management’s of all safety items requiring attention.

Providing a safe working environment is not only great for your people, it is also great for your productivity.

Until next week, many happy customer returns!

Graham Harvey APS

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