Best Buy IdeaX

[#1]

I am a paramedic/AHA instructor by trade in Louisville, KY.  In addition to that job I am part of the product process team at #440 in Bowling Green, KY.  After several conversations and unofficial polling, I have learned that as a company we have failed to give our employees the training to recognize and handle medical emergencies.  While I would never expect a Best Buy employee to know how to handle every emergency, it is both alarming and disheartening to know that there is no opportunity for employees to be trained at even the most basic levels of medical response.

My idea is simple.  As it stands, the American Heart Association offers a computer based training program for CPR and basic life support.  This program is not timed and can be completely at your own pace.  The best part of this this training is that upon its completion, the only requirements to complete it is a hands-on skills check off that can be completed any time as long as an AHA instructor is present to grade you.  The skills portion only takes 30 minutes and can be done anywhere.

To implement this idea, Best Buy would only need to offer the on-line course via learning lounges.  The training costs $65 but in the event that bulk licenses are purchased, a discount is given.  Employees would only need to log in as usual and then complete the course at their leisure.  Upon its completion the skills portion would be scheduled and when done, the employee would be trained in CPR and BLS.

This program would give our employees an added tool to not only use should the need arise but also would give them the ability to be able to save a life of someone they know or love.  Even if Best Buy did not officially sanction this training to be offered while at work, simply buying the licenses for employees to use on their own time would do wonders.

My goal beyond this project is to make Best Buy a leader as a corporation and have AED's in every store.  There are very few places outside of many malls that have an AED and by making them a common sight, hopefully others would follow suit and deploy them as well.

[#2]

You are obviously very passionate about this, and I would love to know that if I ever had a medical emergency the people I work around were trained to respond appropriately. I could see that there might be some Human Resources concerns on this idea. I would like to hear from other employees on this.

[#3]

best buy will never push this.

there are over 180,000 employees world wide.

if each employees cost $65, that will cost Best Buy up to 117,00,000 to roll this out, that's $100 million

They would rather put a sign up say; "Best Buy is not responsble for theft in the parking lot, nor it's responsible for your health care issue."

[#4]

Thanks for the feedback