Question

You are a newly appointed manager at Hair & Co. It is a family-owned business in the

Sydney CBD.

It is a busy unisex salon with ten employees, specialising in cutting, styling, and

colouring hair.

You have observed some key safety issues in the salon. For example, hairdressing

products can carry risks of eye or skin irritation for both staff and customers. And even

something as commonplace as shampooing carries risks for everyone in the salon.

Also, the wash basin area is a major risk, where people might slip on wet floors.

The wet nature of the work – when staff are constantly shampooing 20-30 times a day

– carries a risk of occupational dermatitis, a major issue in this industry.

Even though the salon is covered by insurance, to make sure the customers feel safe

and happy at the salon and the staff can keep up with the busy schedules without

undue difficulties, you want to create a risk management process and treatment plan

for all the risks present so everyone knows how to deal with each risk situation.

1. Details of the risk situation

2. Who you needed to communicate with during the work undertaken, including relevant stakeholders, colleagues and management

Answer 1

Answer: 1 Risks- situations are listed below -

• Hygiene maintenance
• Dermal allergies of staff and customers
• Accidents from wet floor

Answer 2 - The risk plan needs to be carefully implemented with joint cooperation from all the stakeholders. The staff needs to be trained to maintain proper hygiene standards regularly. Rotation of shifts and duties among staff needs to be done, for example, the person who does shampoo service for 3 consecutive days can be shifted to hair cutting service involving less exposure to chemicals and cosmetics. The customers themselves needs to be upfront to confess if they have any allergy issues or should admit skin testing first before using a product to avoid dermal issues and complains later. All these can be done to avoid the potential risks observed in the salon.