Health and Safety and Equality in Boots Company: A Strategic View

This essay provides an analysis of the health and safety measures implemented by Boots Company, emphasizing the importance of these practices for legal compliance, cost reduction, and stakeholder relations. It examines Boots' approach to health and safety, including the use of updated policies, health and safety documents, safety culture plans, and partnerships with external bodies. The essay also discusses the company's strategies for managing equality and diversity in the workplace, such as addressing gender imbalance, promoting community involvement, and implementing diversity and inclusion programs. Furthermore, it explores how these aspects of human resource management affect strategic outcomes and are influenced by internal and external factors, highlighting the importance of a safe and inclusive work environment for achieving organizational goals. Desklib provides a platform to access similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Health and Safety 1
Health and Safety
by [Name]
Course
Professor’s Name
Institution
Location of Institution
Date

Health and Safety 2
Health and Safety
Introduction
Health and safety has been among the things that all organizations are supposed to
consider in their operations. The reason why considering this aspect is fundamental is that not
only being a legal requirement, it makes an organization to realize various benefits including
reduced costs, high commitment to work, reduced turnover rates and absenteeism, the proper
relationship between the company and its stakeholders among others. To enhance health and
safety in workplaces, organizations use various approaches. This paper aims to examine some of
these tactics through basing the discussion on those used Boots Company. The paper shall also
discuss equality and diversity by analyzing some of the measures which Boots has been
employing to ensure it attains these aspects in its operations. The paper shall also examine how
these two aspects of human resource influence strategic effect and how each approach is affected
by both internal and external factors
Approach to health and safety
In its operations, boots has been enhancing health and safety for not only its employees
but also for other stakeholders. The primary reason that makes this company emphasize on
improving well-being is that it believes everyone is essential to its business and therefore
enhancing their safety by ensuring they are healthy and secure has been fundamental in its
operations. Susanne (2013, p, 148) affirms that businesses that implement safety and health
measures realize constant success because all stakeholders experience no barriers to visiting their
premises. This means Boots is likely to succeed because it prioritizes these aspects in its

Health and Safety 3
operations by implementing various approaches aimed to ensure all stakeholders are protected
from things that may harm them.
To ensure everyone is safe, this company has constantly been challenging itself to make
improvements in this aspect by implementing effective measures to ensure that the safety of all
stakeholders is stronger than before. For this reason, it has been using various measures
including policies aimed to ensure the management does what is right for the safety of all.
One of these approaches is health and safety policy. To make this approach meet its
purpose, the company has been updating and refreshing its health and safety policy to make it
easier and clearer to read. According to Singh (2013, p. 61), companies should always update
their approaches from time to time to identify what needs to be changed to address emerging
factors fully. Through this strategy, Boots has been able to safeguard its employees by ensuring
all necessary measures are taken to make them safe and healthy.
While enhancing the well-being of its people, the company also uses health and safety
document which aims at protecting colleagues, customers, and visitors. According to Shahid &
Mohd (2017, p. 59), organizations that review their approach to ensure the safety and health of
its stakeholders are at the right status succeeds because things keep changing and therefore
requires the policies to be revised. This company employs this idea because from time to time, it
rechecks the changes that occur and adjusts its policies to ensure they match the changes.
To enhance the effectiveness of the health and safety policy, the management has been
considering various aspects such as principles of its approach, importance of both safety systems
and behaviors, and safety governance. Its management also rechecks the manner in which it

Health and Safety 4
monitors health and safety business risks and also continues to review it on a monthly basis
through the Boots UK governance committee.
The company has also established a safety culture plan because it trusts that proper safety
management system cannot work in isolation. This culture has been enabling its management to
find out various strategies which it can integrate on its day to day activities to enhance safety,
and also incorporate its colleagues in implementing tactics which can improve their wellbeing
and that of the customers.
The company has established a positive relationship with various bodies including the
Highland council to help in advancing its health and safety measures. From time to time, its
management has been conducting numerous reviews in its stores with the aim of understanding
the effectiveness of its safety systems and safety plan implementation. After undertaking this
activity, it feeds the reviews back to its safety steering group to improve its safety strategies.
The company has also implemented the concept of feeling good as one of the
mechanisms of improving health and safety of its stakeholders. Some of the measures employed
to attain this concept include implementing work well campaign, bike to work week, and other
strategies such as offering wide products and services for its teams, safeguarding and preventing
the policies it uses to help the young or venerable colleagues on how to stay safe, listening to the
matters raised by its support among others.
The other approach used by this company to advance health and safety in its work
environment is through learning from any investigations. Dino (2015, p. 254) affirms that
anything observed whether minor or major should be prioritized when making some of the
decisions that affect the well-being of not only the employees but also for other stakeholders. By

Health and Safety 5
learning from any investigations, Boots attain knowledge concerning some of the factors which
are likely to affect the health and safety of its employees and other stakeholders and take
necessary measures to ensure they are protected.
The company has also been using safety governance to ensure its people are protected.
According to Tanya et al (2014, p. 90), safety governance is kind of management or leadership
that is focused on safeguarding other people from all factors which may harm them. Having this
kind of approach is fundamental especially for companies that strive to prevent the wellbeing of
its people because as Peter (2017, p. 25) affirms when the leaders trust that something is good, it
becomes easy for the juniors to attain it.
From these strategies, Boots seems to have been keen on enhancing health and safety of
its customers and colleagues. The strategies are well formulated and appear to be effective
because irrespective of different, they attempt to address the same issue: health and safety.
According to Leeanne (2012, p. 58), implementing various measures to address the same issue
plays a crucial role in addressing matters which affect business operations because if one of the
strategies fail, the others work.
Partnering with other agencies and reviewing its strategies on a regular basis is also an
effective way of enhancing health and safety. Brian (2017, p. 35) affirms that health and safety
issues keep changing and therefore organizations need to review their strategies to ensure they
adjust them to address the changes. Partnering with other agencies to enhance health and safety
can play a significant role in assisting this company in attaining assistance on matters that seem
to challenge it in addressing the well-being of its customers and colleagues.

Health and Safety 6
Additionally, including its colleagues in planning concerning health and safety measures
is also an effective way of ensuring best strategies are implemented to enhance health and safety
of its people. According to Sambasivan (2012, p. 51), companies which include its stakeholders
in implementing policies related to their wellbeing attain their goals because they get every detail
that they need to consider in their decisions.
Company’s approach to managing equality and diversity in the workplace
According to Mihaela-Lavinia (2017, p. 128), maintaining diversity and equality is
fundamental in businesses because it enables the staff members to feel appreciated and
accommodated in the workplace. From this case, Boots uses various measures to ensure these
aspects are considered in their operations. One of these approaches is ensuring it addresses
gender imbalance through women in IT. Prentice & Neve (2017) affirms that one of the factors
that lead to lack of equality in workplaces is failing to consider women in some activities or
areas of responsibility. By having this approach, Boots attains gender balance by encouraging
women to play a role in IT related issues and other aspects which are rarely given to people of
this gender.
Ensuring that equality is considered in businesses is one of the factors that enhance
performance and the proper relationship between the management, employees, and the society
(Leilanie 2011, p. 128). To promote equality in its operations, this company ensures the
pharmacists are part of the local community. When an organization hires people from the local
community, it enhances its relationship with it and hence builds its reputation because the society
views it as one which minds the wellbeing of the people around.

Health and Safety 7
This company also ensures there is equality and diversity in its workplace through
recruiting, retaining and promoting a diverse mix of colleagues who are representatives of
diverse community. According to Loise (2014, p. 88), maintaining people of diverse
backgrounds results to positive effect in businesses because it makes the workplace to have
people of different ideas, opinions, and cultural beliefs. This aspect plays a crucial role in
promoting good performance because it makes employees to learn from one another.
Additionally, it also makes the society to develop a positive relationship with the company,
which in turn, leads to increased sales and productivity.
To enhance diversity and inclusion in Boots, the management has implemented workshop
days which assists in giving the company a greater focus and various ways of refreshing its plans
concerning this issue. According to Jonathan & Leigh (2012, p. 28), diversity and equality
succeed when there are proper mechanisms of identifying some of the measures which can be
used to ensure all people in the workplace understand its importance.
This company has also implemented various programmes targeted to improve the aspects
of diversity and inclusion. Some of them comprise of a broad range of career programmes for its
colleagues, actively delivering a work experience programme with communities that are
traditionally hard to reach, and a diversity e-learning package.
Based on this programmes, one can state that this company does not discriminate any
community or individuals. It seeks to give opportunities to people according to their potentials,
skills, and experiences. Anne (2012, P. 28) affirms that organizations which encourage high
levels of inclusion in their operations tend to prosper in their business. Therefore, because Boots

Health and Safety 8
considers this aspect in its business, there are chances of attaining great success in various issues
such as talent retention, low turnover rates, increased productivity and so forth.
This company also has teams that teams that strive to inspire great ideas drive new plans
forwards and assist in making Boots a fantastic place to work. This implies that Boots is
dedicated to ensuring its workplace attracts people of varying opinions and ideas. The company
also inspires its employees, train them, develop talents and also gives them opportunities of
attaining career growth without discrimination by gender or ethnicity.
How these two aspects of human resource can affect strategic effect and how each
approach is affected by both internal and external factors
According to Ali (2013, P. 215), health and safety help in delivering strategic effect due
to various reasons. For instance, it enhances the relationship between the company and the key
stakeholders such as the customers and employees. When this relationship advances, the
company performs better due to workforce and reputation.
When a company set goals and objectives, it requires proper workforce and plans to
attain them. These goals cannot be attained in a workforce where employees feel unsecure.
Monika (2014, p. 99) affirms that in organizations where safety to employees is not guaranteed,
the workers tend to underperform because they pay much attention to what is likely to affect
their wellbeing than the tasks they undertake. This means it is essential for organizations to
ensure their employees feel safe by implementing strategies which can prevent them from all
factors that are likely to harm them.
Health in the workplace also has a significant impact in determining whether an
organization will attain its strategic goals or not. Rupert (2015, p. 56) affirms that when

Health and Safety 9
employees are healthy, they fully commit their efforts to tasks, but when they are unhealthy, they
spend a lot of time seeking for medical attention. Lack of promoting health in workplaces also
leads to high absenteeism, which in turn affect performance. Viktoriya (2016, p. 56) affirms that
giving employees a lot of sick offs impacts the possibility of attaining goals because it leads to
lack of sufficient workforce.
Enhancing health and safety plays a crucial role in delivering strategic effect because it
makes organizations to have favorable working environments. According to Smith (2010, p. 68),
companies attain their goals when they have a work environment which encourages its staff
members to commit their efforts towards better performance fully. Because health and safety are
among the significant determinants of the work environment, they determine whether employees
will be willing to dedicate to their tasks, and therefore means that they have a significant effect
on strategic planning and other factors that can make an organization to attain success.
The level of health and safety in businesses control risks and boost businesses. Halili
(2015, p. 469) affirms that low levels of risks in businesses increase productivity because it
makes all people in the organization to have a common focus and also to participate in their tasks
without fears.
Health and safety in organizations aid in minimizing healthcare and insurance costs, and
also decreasing the risks of lawsuits and federal fines. According to Nadia (2017, p. 89),
businesses have the responsibilities of ensuring their employees are safe and free from all factors
that may make them to be infected with diseases. When they fail to comply with this
requirement, they may end up spending a lot of money in paying fine, compensating injured

Health and Safety 10
employees and paying hospital bills. This hinders success in businesses because the money
which would be used in other important things is used in addressing other unplanned issues.
Health and safety also have a strategic impact on businesses because it enables a
company to enhance its reputation. According to William (2013, p. 146), companies associated
with high levels of safety and health-related issues have a bad reputation because they are seen as
ones which do not care about the wellbeing of their stakeholders. Reputation plays a significant
role, especially when hiring and therefore it is crucial for businesses to ensure they portray a
good picture to the public.
William (2013, p. 58) affirms that employees who are confident concerning their safety at
work tend to be highly satisfied with their bosses, and therefore have increased levels of morale.
When workers have high levels of morale, they strive to not only impress their employers
through better performance but also to make themselves happy through attaining their career
goals.
Having health and safety considering also has a strategic effect in businesses because
according to Rupert (2015, p. 59), one of the strategic aspects in businesses includes targeting
better performance through identifying the responsibilities of every person. Considering these
aspects is one of the factors which make the management to make employees understand what
they are responsible for when it comes to the matters safety.
Although companies strive to ensure these aspects are considered in their operations,
there are various internal and external factors which influence their success. According to Dino
(2015, p. 255), one of the internal factors which affect the aspects concerning the wellbeing of
employees is lack of enough resources. For the safety and health aspects to be enhanced, the

Health and Safety 11
company should have enough money to meet the costs of safeguarding the staff members from
harm. Some of the costs incurred, in this case, comprise of installing safety equipment and
purchasing safety gear.
Training is also another aspect which influences safety and health in workplaces. Alan &
Nicole (2010, P. 56) affirms that for organizations to succeed in the measures that they have
established to enhance health and safety in workplaces, there must be proper knowledge
concerning these aspects. For this knowledge to be attained, the management should ensure their
staff members undergo training to understand various things such as how to avoid risks, the role
they should play in promoting safety and healthy environment, what they should do in case an
emergency occurs and so forth.
The other internal factor which affects health and safety in businesses is employee
behavior and their understanding concerning change. This is because for health and safety
measures to implemented, a change must occur, and because employees sometimes reject change
because of various factors such as fear for the unknown, implementing these measures can be
challenging in some cases. This means for organizations to succeed in enhancing the well-being
of their workers, they should first inform their staff members concerning the strategies that they
want to implement and the likely changes that may result.
One of the external factors that influence health and safety in organizations is legal
requirements. This is because the law requires all organizations to have health and safety
measures in place, meaning the management should not take it as an option but something which
they must implement.

Health and Safety 12
The other external factor which influences this aspect is public demand. For
organizations to attain reputation, they must portray that they can enhance safety and security of
their employees. This means because reputation plays a crucial role in the success of businesses,
every organization that wants to prosper in its business must implement measures that protect not
only its employees but also other stakeholders from any form of hazard. They should also
implement this measure to be able to attract many and potential applicants when vacancies arise
because people like working with organizations which guarantee their safety.
Conclusion
From this analysis, it is clear that Boots uses various approaches to ensure health and
safety are enhanced in its operations. Some of the approaches, in this case, comprise of using
various policies, implementing a culture of health and safety, training its staff members
concerning this aspects, learning from investigations, refreshing and reviewing its strategies from
time to time among others.
The company has also been working to ensure there is equality and diversity in its
operations. Some of the measures used to attain this aspect comprise of implementing Women IT
programmes which aid in ensuring there is no gender discrimination in allocation of tasks and
responsibilities. Other measures include ensuring the pharmacists are part of the local
community, and hiring, retaining and encouraging a diverse mix of colleagues who are
representatives of diverse community.
These two aspects of human resource can have strategic effect in business operations
because they have a significant impact on various key areas which determine the chances of
success. For instance, they determine employee turnover rates, absenteeism, relationship with the

Health and Safety 13
community, costs incurred and so forth. Various internal and external factors influence each of
these factors. Some of the internal factors which impact them comprise employee knowledge, the
relationship between the management and employees, the level of training, resources available
among others. On the other hand, some of the external factors comprise of legal requirements,
the relationship between the company and the public among others.

Health and Safety 14
References
Alan, H & Nicole, G. (2010). Attitudes and Perceptions of Work Safety among Community
Mental Health Workers. North American Journal of Psychology, 12(1), 54-68.
Ali, N. (2013). Institutional Perspectives in HRM and MNC Research: A Review of Key
Concepts. International Journal of Employment Studies, 21(2), 212-225.
Anne, T. C. (2012). "Anything That Forces Itself into My Vagina Is by Definition Raping Me ..."
- Adult Film Performers and Occupational Safety and Health. Stanford Law & Policy Review,
23(1), 24-35.
Brian, B. (2016). The Monthly Labor Review at 100-Part IV: Employee Benefits, Industries and
Occupations, and Worker Safety and Health since 1980. Monthly Labor Review, 35-46.
Brian, W. (2017). Reaction to Safety Equipment Technology in the Workplace and Implications:
A Study of the Firefighter's Hood. The Qualitative Report, 22(12), 145-168.
Dino, D. (2015). The Quest for Meaningful and Accurate Occupational Health and Safety
Statistics. Monthly Labor Review, 138, 254-271.
Halili, H. K. (2015). Corporate Liability under Malaysian Occupational Safety and Health
Legislation. International Journal of Business and Society, 16(2), 478-182.
Jonathan, B & Leigh, T. (2012). Returning Dignity to Labour: Workplace Safety as a Human
Right. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations (Online), 37(1), 25-38.
Leeanne, T. (2012). New Zealand and the Proposed Australian Model Workplace Health and
Safety Act. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations (Online), 37(1), 56-78.

Health and Safety 15
Leilanie, L. J. (2011). Occupational Health and Safety of Women Workers: Viewed in the Light
of Labor Regulations. Journal of International Women's Studies, 12(1), 122-141.
Loise, N. K. (2014). What Do Social Processes Mean for Quality of Human Resource Practice?
Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 4(2), 87-98.
Mihaela-Lavinia, C. (2017). Health and Safety at Work - a Fundamental Right of All Participants
in the Labor Process. Economics, Management, and Financial Markets, 12(2), 124-135.
Monika, B. M. (2014). Competency Models and the Generational Diversity of a Company
Workforce. Economics & Sociology, 7(2), 98-112.
Nadia, D. (2017). A New Paradigm for Occupational Health and Safety: Is It Time to Abandon
Experience-Rating Once and for All? New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations (Online),
42(1), 87-101.
Peter, M. C. (2017). Commitment or Compliance? Institutional Logics of Work Environment
Management 1. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies, 7, 23-39.
Prentice, R & Neve, G. (2017). Unmaking the Global Sweatshop: Health and Safety of the
World's Garment Workers. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Rupert, T. (2015). Commentary: The Dairy Workplace Action Plan, Kelly's 'Pledge Washing',
and the Health and Safety at Work Act, 2015. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations
(Online), 40(3), 54-71.
Sambasivan, E. (2012). Managerial Core Competency Perceptions of Business Executives - a
Study. Researchers World, 3(2), 45-67.
Shahid, A. S & Mohd, A. (2017). Development of Conceptual Key Factors Model for Safety
Culture. Global Business and Management Research: An International Journal, 9(1), 54-68.

Health and Safety 16
Singh, S. V. (2013). Strategic Human Resource Management: A Reality Check. Review of
Management, 3(1/2), 58-78.
Smith, R. J. (2010). Risky Business: Neoliberalism and Workplace Safety in Wyoming Coal
Mines. Human Organization, 69(4), 68-98.
Susanne, B. (2013). Transformational Leaders? The Pivotal Role That Supervisors Play in Safety
Culture. International Journal of Training Research, 11(1), 145-167.
Tanya, B., Alan., H & Eloy, R. (2014). Claiming Rights to Workplace Safety: Latin American
Immigrant Workers in Southwestern Ontario. Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal, 46(3), 89-96.
Viktoriya, P. (2016). Occupational Health and Safety: Why and How Should Worker
Participation Be Enhanced in New Zealand? New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations
(Online), 41(2), 54-72.
William, W. (2013). Legal Issues for HR Professionals: Workplace Investigations. Public
Personnel Management, 42(1), 145-168.
William, W. J. (2013). Using Workplace Safety and Health Data for Injury Prevention. Monthly
Labor Review, 136(10), 56-78.