A safety footwear product trial carried out in the right way can have huge benefits for the health, safety and well-being of a company. Ensuring full compliance and demonstrating a care and attention to employees’ needs can be a powerful and morale-boosting process, bringing added safety and peace of mind to all involved. 

Running a safety product trial might seem like a daunting and potentially time-consuming affair, so in this blog, we’ll highlight all the essential information to ensure that you’re getting the best possible results for everyone involved. 

What is a safety footwear product trial? 

A safety footwear product trial is when a company asks a safety footwear supplier to help them choose the safest and most appropriate type of footwear for their employees. These employees will work in roles where they’ll need an added level of protection for their footwear such as specialist grip, toecap, midsole or metatarsal protection or a particular level of resistance to water.  

A supplier will often make several footwear recommendations to the company after they carry out an assessment of the site. The company will then ask a selection of its workforce to wear the footwear and feedback on them as to their 'on the job' comfort and effectiveness. Based on the outcome, the company will choose a pair for their team or particular department to wear.  

Why carry out a safety footwear product trial? 

Companies carry out safety footwear trials to ensure their workforce is wearing footwear that: 

• has the right levels of protection against the hazards of their role and environment 
• offers the right levels of comfort to ensure their well-being and foot health 
• is correctly fitting (and not just in terms of having the right size. A good supplier will also take into account factors such as specific women's and men's fit, because their foot shapes are different) 

What are the benefits of a safety footwear trial? 

For the employees: 

• It reduces accidents 
• It maximises foot health and comfort 
• Which can boost productivity 
• By boosting morale 

For those in charge of Health and Safety: 

• It ensures full compliance with safety regulations 
• It lets workers focus on the job at hand and avoid the distraction of discomfort, which can cause accidents 
• The reduction in accidents and improvement in comfort will mean less sick days taken (foot-related disorders from ill-fitting footwear can affect the knees, hips and the back. These are the most common work-related health problems in the UK, accounting for 8.8 million sick days taken each year)
  
  
  

For those in Procurement: 

• It can save the company money through improving cost in use
• It can also improve sustainability (buying the wrong footwear will mean it will need to be replaced after a few weeks or months because it isn't performing as required: in the bin, and onto landfill)
  
  

Before you start your trial

• A trial needs to be representative, so ensure you get enough people involved to test the footwear samples from your supplier. Many companies work toward getting around 5% of each team to test the product.
  
  

• Don’t limit your trial wearers to just one department or team. If your company is large, you’ll want to account for as many different specifications as you can. 
• You might have staff who are vocal or candid about their comfort, health and well-being at work. These types of individuals who speak their minds are exactly the kind of people you want to trial new work boots! They’ll give you honest feedback, good or bad, which will give you better data to make the right choice for the company. 
• A safety footwear trial isn’t just to ensure safety compliance – it's about comfort and well-being, so it’s crucial to get detailed feedback from your trial wearers. Make sure they know why this trial is taking place, and how important it is for them and their co-workers. 
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  Everyone involved in the process needs to be ready to fully commit. The reality is that in the short-term, it will require attention, but the long-term benefits are much greater. 
• Make sure you’ve planned and agreed a clear timeline for the process, so there are start, end and check-in points. 

Who shall I approach to carry out the trial?

When you approach a distributor or supplier to deliver your product trial, they should be able to:   

• Give you confidence that they are putting your safety and well-being first 
• Show passion and expertise for safety and their own range  
• Conduct a thorough assessment of your workplace’s environment, hazards and conditions 
• Recommend a range of boots rather than just one and explain clearly how they are suitable for the environments in which they are being placed 

Will a safety footwear trial cost money? 

Suppliers have different approaches here. Some conduct the trial and provide the footwear samples with no cost, others charge, while some charge for the boots but reimburse the company if they choose and then order one of their boot styles. You will need to check the supplier's policy before committing to the product trial on a case-by-case basis. 

You’re in charge 

Remember – this is your safety footwear product trial, so when talking to your supplier, make sure you’re:  

• Clear on the timings and duration of the trial 
• Clear on the number of products you want to trial 

Providing clarity on these two aspects to your supplier will ensure your safety boot trial won’t take too long – often a reason why interest and commitment from those taking part dwindles and the trial loses impact and accuracy. 

During your safety footwear trial 

A safety footwear product trial is all about getting the right boot - a boot that will perform and be enjoyed rather than endured by the wearers. And because of this, you must ensure that you encourage the wearers who sign up to take part are: 

• Using the boots in the right way in the right environment. This doesn’t just mean misusing them – if you need your workforce’s safety boots to protect the ankle, give toecap protection, be durable and resist water, make sure they’re getting outside and really putting them through their paces!  
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  Keeping a record of their feedback in the agreed form. Valuable information can be missed if all feedback is written at the end about multiple boots, so provide wearers with a simple way of recording feedback and encourage them to update it at regular, agreed intervals. 
• Fully committed! Remind them that fully embracing the trial, continuing to wear the boots and being frank about the product’s performance means they and their colleagues will have the safest, most comfortable product. Also, they will have signed up voluntarily, so reminding them of the commitment they made never does any harm. 
• Giving the new products time. It’s hard to go from the normal to the unfamiliar, but even though these new boots will feel different, remind your trial members that everything takes a bit of time to get used to.    

Also, keeping other people in the company who aren’t wearing the boots informed as to how the trial is going is important too. They will be, either directly or indirectly, invested in this product, so keep the trial on everyone’s radar throughout.

Measuring the success at the end of a product trial 

Remember that success will look different to people in the company depending on their role. Health and Safety might want a different pair of boots from Procurement while the trial wearers may have a preferred boot that’s different again. 

To offer the most compelling case to your company’s decision-makers on the right boot, the most powerful thing you can have is data. So again, we come back to the importance of commitment, communication and feedback. The more you have, the easier and safer the decision will be. 

It’s also very important to have the whole process documented and saved, in the event of any future accidents where it is necessary to show that the right products were implemented to keep people safe. This is a particularly important step for the Health and Safety department to take note of.  

Passion and knowledge – V12’s foot health and safety assessment 

If you’re unsure whether your current footwear is the right footwear for your team, why not reach out to the experts?  

A V12 Foot Health and Safety Assessment can offer everything your company needs to achieve total safety peace of mind, strengthen staff morale and productivity - and most crucially - keep everyone safe. 

We’re ready to share our decades of safety passion and expertise with you - click below.