High Risk Play for Australian Retailers Opening in a Covid19 Constrained Environment

Interesting emerging dynamic about to land on the shop fronts of Australian retailers that pose serious risks to their staff. And few retailers are ready

 

With moderate level of vaccinations targets achieved, the NSW Government has decided to open up from a #Covid19 lockdown. It does so, relying on compliance enforcement to be undertaken by shop staff. There are no QR codes, no tracking mechanisms currently available to assist those staff or retail businesses.
And herein lay a massive risk to those companies. How many retailers have trained their staff to deal with the aggressive antivaxxer behaviours? The kind of behaviour that sees protesters urinate on The Shrine of Remembrance, punch horses, and spit on nurses and admin staff at testing stations? The kind of behaviour that sees the Kar/vins claim they have a right not to wear a mask that helps protect others, whilst doing their attention seeking social media posts, venting on retail and hospitality staff.
What training have you given to your staff that enables them to protect themselves, their coworkers, other shoppers or your retail store?  What explicit permissions have you given them to stay safe? Because one thing seems clear – your HR Department and legal team will need to deal with claims resulting from a lack of on site safety if you have not provided the training and resources needed.
And maybe, rather than rush to open up all locations, you might like to consider over staffing fewer locations until you have a handle on how things will pan out because as the #FakeTradies protests showed, you will be the subject of intense and unjustifiable attention because you want to open up to just those who’ve chose the side of society as a whole. because the anti-vaxxers understand, all though THEY have the ‘right’ not to get vaccinated, you do NOT have the ‘right’ not to serve them

A quick look at the ‘Repeal Day’ concept – almost right

Jan 15, 2014

The Australian Government has announced a ‘Repeal Day’, intended to be used to axe the existence of hundreds of outdated laws. The concept is a good one, though for me, doesn’t quite get the Australian Parliament into a forward looking setting in how it could develop FUTURE legislation. So what could be done instead and…

Read More >

2014 – The International Year of Food Security

Dec 30, 2013

Continuing his run of suggesting an annual theme and idea of world focus for the year ahead, Futurist Marcus Barber has declared 2014 to be the International Year of Food Security. ‘The year ahead is going to bring into sharp focus, what has often been seen as an ‘other-world’ problem’ Barber says. ‘For a number…

Read More >

Coming up on New Year’s Day – a look ahead to emerging issues

Dec 29, 2013

Yes I know, committing to an early morning chat on ABC Radio on New Year’s Day may to some seem tinged with the ‘what were you thinking?’ bug, but hey, what better time is there than chatting about the future, than at prime New Year’s Resolution time? You’ll be able to listen to the stream…

Read More >

How your Company Vision is doing you harm

Nov 26, 2013

The Australian Strategic Planning Institute website has a new article on why Visions, rather than being useful shining lights, end up being ‘ruts’ for organisations.   Counter instinictivley and yet simply put, the never ending nature of some Visions leads to an inaction toward that Vision. Companies and individuals spin their wheels in a quagmire…

Read More >

Unlocking the promise of ‘teleworking’

Nov 19, 2013

One of the great things about technology (especially of the instantaneous ‘social’ kind) is the ability to attend a conference without leaving your office. Which is a salient point because yesterday I followed a number of the presentations looking at the idea of tele-working or remote workers, and did so by following the tweets of…

Read More >

Keeping your Future, grounded to Reality

Nov 18, 2013

About once a week I get a call from a client or a media group asking if I can tell them what the future will be like. The conversation usually goes something like this – Me: can I ask what you’re trying to discover? Journalist: Oh you know, something really catchy, about how the world…

Read More >

The 2013 Melbourne Cup – a Futurist Decides

Nov 13, 2013

Now before any of you rush out and stick your hard earned on anything I say here, please note that a) I’m answering this because I get asked every year and b) My track record is appalling. Still I’ve put a bit of thought into a near term prediction to see who you might like…

Read More >

Celebration of Hope fundraiser for Brain Cancer

Oct 17, 2013

Tonight I have the privilege of being the MC for Blackwood 8’s Celebration of Hope Gala Ball at the Manningham Function Centre in Doncaster. Blackwood 8 raise funds to find a cure of Brain Cancer and are strong supporters of Dr. Charlie Teoh’s Cure for Life foundation. With a crowd of around 300 it’s going…

Read More >

Marcus Barber’s Presentation from the V21 Digital Conference in Melbourne is available

Oct 2, 2013

‘ve just spent a delightful day learning about digital issues at the v21 Digital Conference at the State Library and my presentation at that conference is now available at the link below. My all too brief summary of presentations is also provided   Sessions have covered Branding, Blogging, case studies, education & health; future of…

Read More >

The ever increasing computing power replacing jobs by the thousands

Sep 23, 2013

When it comes to ‘anti-technology’ thinking, a term often thrown disparagingly at people is ‘Luddite’. Luddites were indeed anti-tech BUT contrary to modern day thinking, they had a particular dislike for technology that would put people out of work. If technology helped keep people employed or created more jobs they were all for it. Which…

Read More >