This client, through corporate ownership and franchise agreement, operates approximately 200 stores across Australia. Most of the stores are micro-sized businesses with less than 10 employees, predominantly female with a high proportion of young workers.

Major challenges include the limited time and resources available to align the business operations with the various legal jurisdictional requirements, communication and consistency between the stores and a relatively low base of knowledge on risk management actions.

Our role has been to support the Corporate QA Manager who is operationally responsible to the Board for this facet of the company. Specific activities undertaken have included re-drafting their corporate system in consultation with the stores, updating franchisee induction manuals and cross-referencing / integrating safety expectations into various other business requirements. We are also supporting the roll-out of the improved system through action workshops, writing safe work procedures for the recurring high risk tasks, and ongoing telephone and email support for the franchise network.

We liaise closely with Senior Management and have set up appropriate reporting and consultation mechanisms to ensure a sufficient standard of visibility and accountability is maintained without infringing on the autonomy of the stores. Audits are programmed to assess a representative sample of the stores each year to assess standards of compliance with franchisor expectations and to help identify better ways to manage OHS risk for the benefit of both the employer and the worker.