Asif, clothing store manager, London
“We have encountered increasing incidents of sexual harassment in our stores, with customers abusing colleagues. We have mental health responders who have been trained but we aren’t the experts which is why we always refer colleagues to the Retail Trust.
“Recently, our wellbeing team got in touch with the Retail Trust and we had the critical incident support team in store for three to four days offering one-to-one counselling for our colleagues who found it really beneficial. We have tackled issues in-store with the support of local police and councils so our colleagues feel safer and they trust us as an employer to support them in times of need.
“Nobody wants to come into a workplace and suffer abuse of any nature, but if it happens, it’s about us enabling them to have a platform to tell us what the issues are. If we’re not best-placed to support them we guide them in the direction of the Retail Trust and where possible, set up meetings for them.
“Three of us were in attendance [at the Retail Trust training] and by the end of the session we agreed it would be really beneficial for the senior teams in our stores to be trained to support our teams and colleagues in how to deal with these issues and make them feel safer. The importance of a debrief jumped out for me – at the end of a shift, it’s important to offer colleagues and managers the opportunity to speak up if there have been any issues. When I get back to my teams, I’m now considering how I make it easier for teams to share these issues at the end of each shift.”
