San Mateo, CA — More than a quarter of retail employees say they feel unsafe at work, while around half have experienced customer aggression or harassment, results of a recent survey show.
Commissioned by the Loss Prevention Research Council and building security and management firm Verkada, the Harris Poll conducted an online survey of 1,000 U.S retail workers.
Findings show that 27% of the respondents reported feeling unsafe at work, and 54% have observed aggressive or harassing behaviors from customers.
Eleven percent of the workers said they “personally experienced” physical violence within the past year. Among them, more than 70% suggested they’d feel safer with enhanced safety measures. Twenty-two percent of all the workers noted that their workplace has little to no security, and 62% indicated their employer hadn’t changed the level of security over the past 12 months. With better security in place, the workers said, theft (77%), robbery (76%) and physical assaults (61%) could have been prevented.
Video security monitoring (48%), onsite security guard/staff (47%) and alarm systems (45%) were the most common measures that the workers said would give them more peace of mind.
Other findings:
- The workers in grocery stores (21%) and big box stores (21%) most often reported experiencing violent incidents.
- Workers ages 25-34 were the most likely to experience violence, at 24%, followed by those 18-24 (23%).
- Approximately 17% of the workers said they’ve experienced five or more verbal threats in the past year.
- More women (31%) reported feeling unsafe on the job than men (24%).
- More women have experienced or witnessed instances of sexual harassment (20%) and theft (65%) than men (12% and 56%, respectively).
McCraren Compliance offers many opportunities in safety training to help circumvent accidents. Please take a moment to visit our calendar of classes to see what we can do to help your safety measures from training to consulting.
Original article published by Safety+Health an NSC publication