From Unsafe to Engaged: Leading Safety on the Retail Frontline

About this Webinar

Safety leadership in retail doesn't happen in a boardroom. It happens in the seconds between a customer query at the checkout and a forklift reversing in the yard, with a team that's constantly new and under pressure.

Often the bigger risk is invisible: how safe people feel to speak up before something goes wrong. Benny Mathews calls this "unsafety",  the instinct to stay quiet rather than flag a concern, which can turn a near-miss into something worse.

In this session, Benny, who leads the Health, Safety & Wellbeing strategy for Kmart and Target, builds on his psychological safety model by bringing it to the realities of the shop floor. Drawing on experience with constantly changing teams, he explores practical ways to build safety engagement across customer-facing frontline workforces.

What You’ll Learn

• The concept of "unsafety," and why it matters on the shop floor. How the fear of judgement or ridicule shows up in fast-moving, customer-facing teams, and what it costs when people stay quiet instead of speaking up.

• The three dimensions of a genuine safety experience. Why physical safety, psychological safety, and social safety have to work together.

• What drives people to make safer decisions. Benny unpacks the three needs — autonomy, competence, and belonging — that determine whether someone feels capable of working safely, especially when they're new to the role.

• Why simplicity is a leadership skill, not a shortcut. How to translate a psychological safety model into something a casual, high-turnover retail team can actually use.

• Redefining what "safety success" looks like. Why zero injuries isn't the finish line, and what it means to build a safety experience people genuinely thrive in, not just survive.

Who Should Attend: 

• Health & Safety and Risk Professionals

• Team Leaders and Managers

• Senior Leaders and Executives
• HR and People and Culture Leaders 
• Anyone responsible for workplace health and safety outcomes