How healthy is your store?

Monday morning and todays relevant posters are up and ready for this weeks schedule of events for the Inter-Store Health & Safety Week competition. Torika (casual) and i (Amanda - assistant manager) go through the package and plan initiatives for getting everyone involved in this weeks challenges irrespective of the day. We agree that our team of staff are relatively healthy and our store is fairly hazard free but admit we are not perfect. Jacki the second casual arrives later in the morning and we give her a run down on the weeks challenges.

We start with -
Are you drinking enough water?

I ask us as a group, and 'probably not' was all of our responses. 

• Some days i drink more than others but i made a conscious effort to drink more fluids this week, only water during the day and a herbal tea at lunch as i've given up coffee (it's been harrrrrd).
• Torika agreed she could definitely be drinking more but  generally drinks enough.
• Jacki has vowed to drink less diet coke and more water.

We move on to -

Healthy Hands

and discuss handwashing techniques and using hand sanitizer at the front counter. We notice a flaw in our hand washing technique, we are using a tea towel for hand wiping (yes we wash them).  After reading the hand washing poster we decide to try using paper towel in future to be more hygienic.

   Try something new challenge

• Jacki is heading straight to a boxing class tonight after work with her teenage daughter.

• This weekend i'm going to try something new, and go on a bit of an adventure somewhere in Coffs Harbour, and the weather is forecast to be beautiful yay!

Ride your bike to work 
Todays staff all live a bit too far away to ride to work but we discuss the benefits as we go over the poster.

Mental Health and Wellbeing
We are all working mums here at the Coffs Harbour store so mornings are generally a rush getting the family and yourself up and ready for the day then getting everyone where they need to be. The three of us on today agree we should be doing a few stretches before work to center ourselves after the hectic morning rush.

Then we try some quick relaxation techniques. We have a go of the techniques listed on the sheet and settle on two favourites 'counting ten breaths backwards' and 'pick a spot'. 

  
Are you getting enough sleep?
Todays staff agree they could be getting more sleep some nights of the week. We all have very busy schedules but discuss how important it is to all aspects of our lives that we get at least eight hours a night if we can.

Here is Paula having a lovely undisturbed sleep with her beautiful new eyemask......looks like she has snuck into her daughters bed hahaha.....

We move on and discuss the next challenge topic-

Hunt the hazard 
We keep our back room as hazard free as possible, keeping floors/walkways clear of boxes. And just having general orderliness, which we had polished up on recently after a bit of a spring clean out the back. The casuals read the Work Health and Safety Policy....So do we have any hazards out front in the shop? 

We brainstormed a few ideas but started to get busy in store. I'll leave some of the challenges to the other staff.

Healthy recipes and healthy eating

I'm on a new diet (for health reasons) so i have been eating really different of late. This morning i had fried banana and pear with natural yoghurt and honey for breakfast. Simple and quick and a nice change from eggs....

Each of us has a look at the the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating poster and we discuss what everyone is making for dinner.  Its official we all seem to eat quite well here. The girls are all making very healthy dinners for their families tonight and clearly understand the healthy eating food chart.

How safe is your store?

So today Paula (manager), Olivia and i are hunting for hazards in the store and discussing and photographing what we have found!

5 Hazards Challenge

• First up we discover that when we do our steaming our steamers cord should be tucked in flush near the wall to prevent anyone tripping over it.

               

• Secondly we realize after unpacking some stock that positioning of stock boxes is vital to the safety of staff and customers. Again to prevent tripping or bumping into the box. Our solution is to position the box in a safer spot out of the way of customer and staff walkways.

            

• The third hazard we found was an electrical cord placement for our new sunglasses stand that we now have in store next to our counter, the cord was a possible hazard to staff tripping or catching on it. Our solution is to tape up the cord to the front counter and inside the cupboard.

           

• Our fourth hazard (which Paula has reported) is a hole in the concrete floor behind our front counter. It could potentially be a hazard if a staff member was wearing high heels to work as the heel could get caught and again be a tripping hazard. Or if wearing flats you could kick your toe within the hole. Our solution is to cover the hole with a few layers of packing tape to make a firmer flatter surface, we tried it out and it is much safer for now. 

• And finally for the fifth hazard we brainstorm together as a team, and we find something we have never noticed before....when using two way racks within the store make sure the product is not pushed back exposing the metal bar, because someone could bang themselves on it or run into it not seeing it properly. Our solution is to make sure clothes are always evenly spaced on the racks to prevent any bars protruding and being a hazard.

So we hunted and we found five hazards, it just shows that exercises like this are a great way to get staff thinking and being more observant in the workplace.

Are we drinking enough water?

Yes today's staff is drinking plenty of water and some stretching was done during lunch breaks.  

We also addressed the healthy hands challenge by washing our hands regularly and using hand sanitizer especially if we dealt with a customer that appeared to have a cold or was unwell.

Drinking lots of water.........................

Riding to work........

Olivia really stepped up to the 'ride your bike to work' challenge....

Paula has jumped to the 'try something new challenge' she sent me this pic of herself before she heads off to a boxing fitness class.

We covered alot of the challenges today but really focused on Safety in the workplace.  All staff read the Work Health and Safety Policy.  We have an enthusiastic friendly team up here at Coffs Harbour all the staff has been happy and eager to participate in this weeks challenges.

Recipe competition entry and keeping this challenge alive.....

We want all of our six staff members to get involved in the challenges this week, so each day with different staff we addressed all the topics. Today Anna made more of an effort to drink water and wash her hands....we did have a customer that seemed quite snuffly even sneezing at the counter, so that was a perfect opportunity to discuss hygiene and remind Anna of the hand sanitizer in the front counter drawer.

Hand sanitizing......

Hand washing.......

Anna and i also discussed healthy eating and talked about the food groups on the Australian guide to healthy eating poster. 

We talked about recipe ideas to enter in the Healthy Recipe competition, we decided a snack recipe would be ideal for the competition, something nutritious and easy that staff could make and bring to work.

Recipe Competition Entry

Muesli Scones

Ingredients

2 cups blanched almond flour

½ teaspoon celtic sea salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup dried cranberries

¼ cup dried apricots, cut into ¼-inch pieces

¼ cup sunflower seeds

¼ cup sesame seeds

¼ cup pistachios, coarsely chopped

1 large egg (size does matter as dough will not hold together with a small or medium egg)

2 tablespoons agave nectar or honey

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt and soda

Stir in dried fruit, seeds and nuts

In a small bowl combine egg and agave

Stir wet ingredients into dry

Use your hands to form dough

Shape dough into a 6 ½ x 6 ½ square that is about ¾” thick

Cut dough into 16 squares

Bake at 350° on a parchment paper lined baking sheet for 10-12 minutes

Serve

These are soooo yummy and gluten free too.........

They are not my recipe they are a favourite recipe. 

I found the recipe online at alanaspantry. 

I have made them several times and confirm they are a success.

Yummy Yummy Yummy Yummy Yummy

Look !!!!!

Our noticeboard is getting quite full as the week nears its end.

The week is almost over.....

The staff have been fantastic this week, we continued with stretching and relaxation techniques before work or during lunch breaks....We had alot of isams orders, due to the sale this week so either Paula or i were sitting in the chair more than normal....so as a group we discussed the sit less move more challenge and decided that the way to combat this issue would be for isam items picked by other staff to not be left in arms reach for us so we have to get up from the chair and retrieve them or that we should walk through the store and pick many of the items ourselves......this was a perfect solution by the end of the couple days of heavy isams traffic, i didn't have sore shoulders or neck from sitting at a computer and packing the stock.

Jacki continues to loves stretching at work....

Jacki gets over zealous and starts doing pushups....

Torika joins in the fun.....

All challenges have been met...........

So we had an eventful week and overall i think the challenge was a success within our store.  I have the weekend off and have decided to plan something fun for the weekend for the 'Try something new challenge' A big walk along the breakwall and over mutton bird island.

Wow they have done some structural work at MuttonBird Island since i was last here....

Halfway across the island looking back at coffs Harbour

Now admittedly i have done this walk many times before but i haven't done it for over a year as i live further away now. This challenge was an incentive to revisit my old walking ground and try something different, the kids and i also did a couple of walks after dinner during the week, up and back down the winding hill up the road from our house and have decided to keep it up a few nights a week.