Not even a global pandemic can keep South Africans from making trips to their favourite shopping malls for too long. Since the June 2022 announcement by Minister of Health, Joe Phaahla that ended the COVID-19 mask-wearing mandate, brick-and-mortar stores have steadily begun to see increased customer visits and re-visits to their physical store locations.

Liberty Two Degrees, a private Real Estate Investment Trust that co-owns Sandton City and Eastgate Shopping Mall saw foot traffic rise by 14.6% in 2022 compared to the last two years. Major domestic retail groups including Pick n Pay and Mr Price have also committed to physical expansion plans of their own, with Pick n Pay investing R3.5 billion into opening 200 new stores around South Africa and Mr Price assigning 66.5% of its current capital expenditure to opening 180-200 physical stores.

Growth begets growth, which in the context of retail suggests an increase in customer numbers and revenue. Expectantly, that growth also increases the likelihood of injuries and illnesses being sustained by employees and customers on-premises. Occupational Health, Safety and Environment Training tailored specifically to wholesale and retail environments is the most efficient solution for business owners and employees to enhance safety, improve the working environment at their premises, protect brand reputation and ensure industry compliance with relevant legislation.

One such course is the new SAMTRAC Masterclass: Wholesale and Retail. Developed by today’s leading HSE experts for future HSE experts, the qualification builds on existing HSE skills, behaviours and organisational safety policy understandings. SAMTRAC masterclass provides information-rich applied and practical instruction on the application of diverse skills and aptitudes essential for effective HSE management and incident prevention in 2022.

Statistically, retail workers have a two-in-five chance of getting injured on the job. More often than not, these injuries stem from a poor understanding of occupational health and safety in its entirety, or from no certified strategies for how to uphold unique safety requirements in this niche successfully.  The SAMTRAC Masterclass: Wholesale and Retail addresses all HSE concerns by detailing legal safety expectations through 5 key modules offered via Webinar. These include:

• Module 1: EHS Legislation and Environmental Management
• Module 2: Retail Health and Safety Hazards
• Module 3: Risk Management
• Module 4: Environmental, Safety, Health and Security Procedures
• Module 5: Emergency Preparedness and Response

These course components help to build superior HSE skillsets and introduce the concepts of risk-based thinking and hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA) – building you into a better safety professional within 5 days.  Students can save on transport costs by studying via our immersive, distance webinar study option

Safety and customer service go hand in hand. Many risks that are not always visible to the naked eye can be controlled and mitigated when employees are educated about them. SafetyCloud’s mission is to ensure safe and healthy working conditions for those working within the retail and wholesale sector through world-class training that is 21st-century relevant.  To learn more about the SafetyCloud Masterclass: Wholesale and Retail and how it best serves your safety training needs, get in touch with us.