Case Study $-$ Fashion and Safety at Bloomingdale's

Bloomingdale's is a chain of luxury department stores owned by Macy's with more than $10,000$

employees in $12$ states. Founded in $1872,$ Bloomingdale's has been considered a destination store to

find the latest in fashion design. Although retail is a safe job compared to manufacturing, there are still

numerous ways that employees can get hurt on the job. For example, employees can be injured by

falling off ladders while changing displays, incorrectly using boxcutters to open packages, or not

following correct procedures cleaning up broken glass on the retail floor when customers drop

merchandise or knock it off of display shelves. Bloomingdale's wants to reduce safety claims to lower

costs by improving employee knowledge of safe practices, providing consistent safety training across

departments and stores, and encouraging employees to call out their peers' safe and unsafe work

behaviors and practices.

Bloomingdale's currently uses a combination of approaches for increasing employees' safety

awareness, including posting safety messages in break areas, providing classroom training, and holding

pre$-$shift meetings. But Bloomingdale's doesn't believe employees are getting a consistent safety

message and it doesn't know whether they understand safety practices and how to apply then while

they are working.

Bloomingdale's is looking for a training approach that $(1)$ can be completed by employees during their

work hours without taking them off of the retail floor, $(2)$ appeals to a diverse, multigenerational

workforce, $(3)$ is flexible enough so that it can be customized to address the unique safety challenges

that stores and departments have, and $(4)$ provides a way to measure employee learning and link their

learning back to business goals.