Risk Management and Training

Hazard and risk management has become a critical element of running a business in today's legislative environment. Both C-Stores and Service Stations face the threat of security and armed robbery issues, while Service Station operators have the added risks of Dangerous Goods Storage and Handling. Not to mention all the other obligations from various legislative laws that cover retailing businesses.

What are these risks you need to manage? A risk is the chance of something happening as a result of a hazard or threat which will impact on your business activities. Risk arises out of uncertainty. It is measured in terms of the likelihood of it happening and the consequences if it does happen.

Risk management is the process which is used to avoid, reduce or control risks.

Ignoring the risks which apply to your business activities could impact on the following:

  • The health and safety of employees and customers.
  • Your reputation, credibility and status in the community.
  • Public and customer confidence in your business.
  • Your financial position.
  • Legal prosecution and/or civil litigation.

The cost and time needed to implement risk management is always less than the potential costs and loss of time involved if your business does not manage risk.

Businesses and employers with poor risk management could face financial penalties and prosecution under various State and Federal Laws. Usually businesses fail to measure up to these obligations due to:

  • Little or no training provided and documented.
  • No procedures or controls in place to manage risks.
  • No risk assessment conducted within the business.
  • Insufficient awareness of the potential risks to the business.

It is the every operators/employers responsibility and accountability to abide by all Federal, State and Local government legislations in the areas of risk management.

The following is a sample of some of the areas that service station and C-Store operators must be aware of and implement risk management strategies and controls for:

  • Workplace safety
  • Dangerous Goods Act and Environmental Acts
  • Security
  • Privacy Laws
  • Trade Practices Act
  • Equal Opportunity Legislation
  • Industrial Legislation
  • Sale of Tobacco Products Legislation
  • Sale of Adult Magazines Legislation

It is the responsibility of all employers and business operators to develop and implement risk management strategies that demonstrate Due Diligence to their obligations under all of these areas. One of these strategies should be competency based training for all staff.

Competency based training should be developed to cover all the safe work practices, legal work practices and the underpinning knowledge required to operate within legal restraints and provide safe environments for staff and customers.

Initial new staff induction programs are critical and these should include not only the training but a process that assesses the staff members resulting competency, documents and records it. In some critical areas it is also important to constantly review training and re-assess staff after a suitable period of time that they have been with you. This can be done with short simple coaching and assessment sessions conducted on critical topics such as armed robbery survival, sale of tobacco products to minors, zero tolerance to harassment in the workplace and so on.

Companies and training providers have developed many options that are available to operators to implement training and assessment. The most cost effective proposition today is likely to be e-learning programs that include a documented assessment of competency package.

Whatever option an operator chooses, it needs to be robust and provide verifiable evidence of competency that will stand up to close scrutiny under legal challenge

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