What Is A Reasonable Request Of An Employee Not On The Clock?

In a recent article published in LPM Insider, “Security Footage Sinks Employee Lawsuit Targeting Employee Bag Checks” by Garrett Seivold, Feb 7, 2018, they discussed a lawsuit brought against Nike by an employee who complained that he was being required to have package checks done when he was off the clock. His argument was that he was not being compensated for the time he is delayed. For the time being Nike has not been found to be excessive in its demands. They were able to demonstrate that employees were only being stopped for an average of 18 seconds for an inspection. This is hardly excessive by any measure. However, courts have a tendency to be inconsistent or a higher court may overturn a lower court decision. While one court may uphold the decision in favor of Nike there is no guarantee this will be true should a similar lawsuit be brought against other retailers.

This case brings up some interesting questions for retailers. No one should ever work off the clock (unless of course the employee is classified as “exempt” in which case there is no time clock per se) but what constitutes reasonable requests? Can an employer “ask” employees to bring in a shopping cart from the parking lot if they are coming to work or returning from a break? It seems like an innocuous request. It helps the store keep the parking lot clear of hazards and saves the time of sending someone out to gather buggies and the employee is already on the way in. The problem in this situation is that the suggestion may not be perceived as a suggestion. The request is coming from a person in authority so there could be the sense that the request is a requirement and if it is not done, will the staff member get in trouble or be perceived as a non-team player? This type of request has been made of employees and does fall into a gray area. To prevent it from becoming a problem it is probably best to err on the side of caution and not do it.

Is it reasonable to ask a closing employee(s) to clock out and wait to exit the building with the closing manager who still has to set the alarm system for the store? Again, the process of setting the alarm may only take an extra minute but having been a closing manager I have had alarm panels that won’t set properly due to a faulty alarm sensor. Those take time to clear or shunt so the rest of the system can be set. How much time is reasonable? There may not be a clear answer.

Last but certainly not least what about delays due to electronic article surveillance alarm activations? Unlike a package check at the end of the shift in which a quick peek is all that is required to look for obvious unpaid merchandise, an electronic article surveillance alarm requires more attention. Something is in the possession of the person and that has to be resolved. This also means more time will be required for inspecting receipts and items the person has in their possession. Until the cause for the alarm is determined there is reasonable cause for a delay but should that employee be paid for the time? What if the cause for the alarm is due to faulty equipment that did not de-tune a Checkpoint tag? What if the cause is due to cashier error and the failure to remove a hard tag at the time of purchase? Would any of these factors shift a court decision in favor of an employee suing for the same reasons?

It appears for the time being that courts will allow reasonable time demands from employees for things that impact the security and safety of a store. What makes one requirement reasonable while another is not could become problematic. Conduct package checks and ask your closing employees to wait a minute to enable the group to leave together for safety reasons. Consider making the expectation clear and why you are doing it in a release form signed by the employee during the hiring process. If you still have concerns then manually adjust timecards to reflect the additional time. At least the employees will know they are being compensated for that 18-second bag check.    


Preventing Shoplifting and Retail Shrink

Many small and big chain businesses across the country are fed up with the amount they lose due to shoplifting and employee theft.  The solutions are seemingly unavailable for these businesses and they are teaming up with local police departments to address this issue.

The Chico Police Department, The Chico Chamber of commerce and the Chico Business Association are teaming up in an effort to prevent shoplifting in their community.  This is not the only joint effort, many other states’ police departments and communities are getting together to form a coalition to find a solution to shoplifting. 

Shoplifting puts an additional strain on these businesses that in some cases are already having difficulty staying afloat and the losses incurred due to this crime make it an impossible business to sustain.

One the many ways they lose to shoplifting is to organized retail theft that involves many individuals and can cost a store thousands of dollars in a single day.  Home Improvements stores targeted by individuals can damage the bottom line of these stores even though they are big retail chains that can offset the cost due to shoplifting better than the small business owner.

In some states, theft legislation has put many business owners scratching their heads. The losses they incurred due to shoplifting, they see as a direct consequence to the legislation government officials passed in their states.  Preventive measures are not enough, youth programs to prevent shoplifting and violent crimes are not enough for these businesses because they do not see it happening soon enough for the well being of their stores.

What are some other alternatives to prevent shoplifting?

  1. Training – Trained personnel can make a big difference in your store. Recent reports in the UK have shown a dramatic increase in violent incidents from the previous year due to shoplifting.  The difference between a trained employee and one that is not can be the difference between life and death
  2. Shoplifting prevention systems – If you do not have one and rely solely on your employees, the losses your store is suffering may be staggering.  A shoplifting prevention system is a necessity for a retail business, and the amount invested in such system may be the best investment you can make for the success of your store.
  3. Software that works together with the loss prevention system and the trained personnel in your store are pivotal to the success of your retail business.  It is a process that needs all the parts to work together to be successful and to achieve its purpose.

Shoplifting is a crime that affects society in general, and the prevention of such crime seems to be the only alternative retail businesses have. Prevention includes training your personnel, investing in a loss prevention system and software that can help you mitigate the losses due to this crime.  Those three preventive measures cannot work if your employees are not engaged and are not willing to work with you in the prevention of this crime.  Happiness in the workplace is important but if you are dealing with disgruntled employees, preventing shoplifting may be very hard to achieve.  Talk to your employees and find out if you need to address that issue first and foremost.


Why Should I Care If An Employee Uses Illegal Drugs On Their Own Time?

Because like alcohol abuse, both legal and illegal drug use, affects your bottom line. This issue never has a happy ending and it will never go away unless you meet it head-on.

Drug abuse affects your bottom line through poor performance, high numbers of no call/no shows, risk to customer and employee safety, high workers comp claims, bad elements frequenting your business, customers shying away from your business and much, much more.

If you operate in a State that has essentially de-criminalized marijuana use, you have an even bigger exposure. Employees that feel empowered to get high on a frequent basis and come to work in that condition, are a threat to your livelihood. State law does not relieve you of liability. Marijuana use and possession are still illegal under Federal law. Even if the Federal law was to change, you would still be liable for your employee’s actions while they are at work. It is just the same as an employee that is under the influence of alcohol while at work.

But you probably suspected or knew this already. What you cannot do is look the other way. Your plan should start with hiring, as competently as you can. I teach pre-employment interviewing live, via webinar to LPSI customers free of charge. A candidate will likely tell you if they abuse drugs, you simply need to know how to ask the question. These techniques also apply to employee theft from their previous employers. You just need to know how to ask.

A solid Applicant Management Center (AMC) will allow you to keep track of the application and their information. We have an excellent AMC that is also so inexpensive that it is a no-brainer. No more paper applications to keep up with.

Next, you must conduct a background investigation (okay, we do that too). A search of the candidate’s criminal record, credit (if necessary), education and a drug screen will give you a much better idea of who you are hiring.

Drug testing is simple and inexpensive. Our customers approve the candidate for the drug test and our online system allows the candidate to locate and schedule the test at a lab near them. Our nationwide system then tracks the progress. Results are given to you automatically. We can advise you on what substances you should include in your testing. Tests that come back positive are automatically reviewed by an M.D.

So now that this is out of the way, we need to return to the reason why you should require drug testing. Imagine this: one of your employees in the process of doing their job, is under the influence of a substance, and they injure one of your customers, accidentally. In today’s climate that incident will be known far and wide. None of us want to be on the five o’clock news with the headline “Customer injured at insert your company’s name here by an employee that was high”.

Need more? People who use illegal drugs attract other people who use illegal drugs. The whole birds of a feather, flock together scenario. And in my 40+ years of Loss Prevention and Law Enforcement experience, I can tell you that the financial pressure that illegal drugs puts on a person will make them likely to steal to support their needs. Illegal drugs WILL lead to employee theft regardless of how well you think your employees like you and company.

Fix the issue before it becomes a financial drain and a liability to YOUR business and livelihood. Contact us today for more information.


Employee Dishonesty Is Not Always Easy To Identify

I recently read an article entitled “How to spot a liar in your inbox” by Vanessa Van Edwards. The article discussed the nuances of how to tell if someone is lying to you in an email. The writer made some interesting observations on the lack of personal pronouns in the body of an email, inconsistency in tense usage and vague language. It dawned on me that often this is the same thing supervisors handle on a regular basis with employees. Think back to a phone call you have taken from an employee calling out of work. Often the conversation goes something like this, “I don’t feel well, I think I am going to have to call out today.” The employee is using language that does not make sense. They “think” they have to call out. Either they do or they don’t have to call out, the decision is theirs to make. Saying “I think” sounds more like asking permission to call out than making a decision of their own. Avoiding responsibility is one way an employee may try to lie without feeling guilty about it.

Another method of avoiding responsibility especially when something has gone wrong is to avoid using “I”. In these situations, a person will often use “we” or “they” to transfer blame away from themselves. I recall a department manager that worked for me and I would ask about why our team was not done with their tasks by a certain timeline. This manager never took responsibility for the pace of the team or their failure to get the job done when the timelines were not met. Rather than have an honest discussion about where his focus had been or what impacted the workflow this manager would say “they weren’t moving quickly” or “there were small boxes and it took longer than “we” thought it would. There was no “we” it was his responsibility but by not using “I” he was trying to shift the blame. My conversations with him were about “MY” expectations and prior discussions “I” had conducted with him (not to mention the discussions I had with my boss). It is not comfortable to have to confront a situation but the only way to effectively deal with a problem is to own what is yours to own and find solutions to a problem. Deflection, avoidance, and excuses never fix anything.

In my role as a Loss Prevention Manager, I frequently encountered situations of people lying to me. Until the futility of their lies became obvious to them many shoplifters would try to shift blame or avoid responsibility for their actions. My friends made me do it or dared me to do it was a great example of this. Catching a dishonest employee and conducting an interview with him/her over their crime was another opportunity to catch someone lying. Rarely would someone admit to what they had done and rarer still was the person who would take outright ownership of their criminal activity. “I don’t know what you are talking about.” was an immediate response to being confronted about theft. It usually took a lot of effort to get to where someone would admit to what they had done. Sometimes the person has to have the facts placed before them to get them to acknowledge wrong-doing.

You may not be dealing with employee theft but you will certainly have to confront employees about incomplete or unsatisfactory assignments and projects. There will also be those times when you have customer service issues that you have to handle. If you do not have the confidence that your employees will be honest with you it may require you to be able to distinguish fact from fiction. Sometimes a manager owns some responsibility when an employee lies to them. The lie is not right but if the manager has made himself unapproachable or is overly critical and harsh in discussing opportunities it becomes understandable. Who wants to talk to a supervisor about a problem they are having if the impression is that they are going to get raked over the coals if they do something wrong? The environment of a workplace can make a difference in the actions of the employees.

Make sure you have an open door policy and are genuinely interested in your employees. If they are going to be deceitful with you make sure you have not contributed to the problem. Then make sure you can recognize some of the signals that someone is attempting to deceive you. The ability to identify deceitful workers can make identifying and dealing with workplace problems much easier for you in the long run.


     

Management Communication And Cohesion Lead To Stronger Teams

 A unified leadership team for any business can be a catalyst for driving great results. When managers are all communicating with each other, sharing information and giving honest feedback an entire team benefits. Managers in those environments tend to see the big picture and can assist a peer in another department in their absence. As the staff members see this cohesion they understand that they can’t get one over on a supervisor or pit one against another. A management team that works well together can prevent situations where an employee may lie and not get caught or manipulate managers by playing what I call the “Mom vs. Dad” card.

Working in a library, I see student workers trying to manipulate one or two “nice” staff members on a somewhat regular basis. The students may not see what they are doing as lying or being dishonest, they just know that there are certain supervisors who will probably say “Yes” to almost any request. The request may be to leave early or they want to call out of work for silly reasons. I had one employee who wanted to leave early because her pet fish was sick, even though she had spent one hour of her two-hour shift at work when she made the request. Now seriously, was she going to take this fish to a veterinarian? She chose the wrong supervisor to approach because the supervisor came to me and told me of the request and asked me for my opinion. While I gave the student the option to stay she was reminded that requests for leaving early impacted hiring decisions for the next semester. She stayed for her next hour.

In another situation, I had to have a conversation with a worker over her behavior with co-workers and supervisors. I made it clear the behavior would have to change and steps on how to improve. I did let her know I wanted her to be successful but I would not allow the behavior to continue if she was going to work for us. The employee came back later and attempted to give her resignation and turn in her equipment to one of our nicer staff members. The staff member was super sweet and was going to let it go with a, “I’m sorry to see you go.” The supervisor who was with me when I spoke with the employee walked in on the conversation and the mood changed. The employee tried to lie about the conversation and what was said to her. This supervisor cut off her excuses and reminded her what was really said during our talk. The employee left in a huff but the blame game was shut down. When the first supervisor was asked why she was just going to let the employee make her complaints and leave the supervisor said she liked to give people the benefit of the doubt. It’s no wonder why employees like to go to her to get what they want.

While we have a great team of supervisors, I do have problems with some who do not like to be the “bad guy”. A management team needs to share the burden of holding employees accountable for their actions. It is unfair to expect one or two supervisors to conduct discussions involving poor performance or behavior problems and/or administer corrective actions. These supervisors are the ones who appear to be the mean ones to the team members and acquire an undeserved reputation as being “unfair” or “harsh”. The best management teams are those in which everyone participates in the corrective action process. They document talks with employees and record them in some form of record keeping so when review time comes around those notes play a part in the scoring. These teams also have supervisors taking partners with each other making it harder for one person to be pitted against another.

There will always be those employees who try to get away with something whether it is not working as hard as their co-workers to outright lying to a supervisor. Those management teams that communicate amongst themselves and share the responsibility for administering correction or discipline when necessary will find it easier to identify and keep the best workers. Build a great store team by creating a cohesive management team that communicates with each other and shares the responsibilities of leadership.


Assuming Employees Know What You Want Is A Poor Assumption

As managers and supervisors, we are all guilty at some point of assuming our employees will know what we are wanting from them when we make a request or assign a project. It may be something as simple as asking someone to empty a trash canister or as complicated as resetting a plan-o-gram. In our minds, the requested task may only require common sense but to the employee, it may be something totally different. Take the trash can example, you may ask an employee to empty it and assumed they would empty it into a compactor and place a new trash can liner inside. The employee may only hear that you want them to take the bag out and place the trash beside the compactor. They don’t hear you tell them to put a new liner inside the canister when they are done because you never said it. It seems like it should only be common sense but it isn’t necessarily the case. The same problem exists for every aspect of a job. Sometimes those of us in management positions make unfair assumptions and then get angry when our team members don’t do what we expected them to do.

If you were to ask someone to clean a public restroom in your store you would expect specific tasks to be done, fill the paper towels, mop the floors, clean the bowls, etc. The military is one of the places we can take a lesson from. It is never assumed a person knows anything.  In military basic training, a person is treated as though they are devoid of all knowledge. A Drill Sergeant tells you exactly how that restroom will look and every detail that needs to be accomplished from mopping floors to polishing sink fixtures. Failing to meet his/her expectations results in the full fury of their wrath being heaped upon your pitiful soul (yes, the writer knows this from personal experience). As far as the Drill Instructor is concerned a recruit knows nothing and they remind you of that fact in a very loud voice. Don’t even suggest that your mother taught you how to do something because your mom apparently doesn’t know anything either. Managers should take a similar approach to training their employees. This is not a recommendation to begin treating new hires as boot camp recruits simply assume they don’t know anything and show them what you expect.

This raises the question, “Can’t I assume someone I hired with a retail background should be able to run a cash register or merchandise a clothing fixture?” The answer is no. You can’t forget that points of sale vary and procedures are also different amongst retailers. While the learning curve may be smaller the fact of the matter is every employee still needs to learn the ropes of a new job. One store may organize clothing racks by colors while another is only concerned with styles and sizing. A new hire with prior experience will pick up on the new way to do things quickly but there is an adjustment that they will have to make.

Business owners and store managers must also be sure to review all shortage and theft-related do’s and don’ts with new hires. If a store policy is that a cashier cannot ring a transaction for a relative then that needs to be explained to the employee. It is acceptable to have a list of what is not permitted and have them sign the form indicating they have read it and understand it. For example, a list may look something like this:

  • No ringing transactions for friends or relatives
  • Purses and jackets must be kept in lockers and are not permitted at a register
  • Changing a price for an item requires a manager approval
  • No drinking or eating merchandise that has not been paid for
  • No taking cash from a register
  • Do not keep or use lost gift cards, credit cards, checks, etc.
  • All employee purchases must be accompanied by a receipt

This is not an exhaustive list but it does give a good starting point. Should an employee violate a policy they have acknowledged they understand it becomes extremely difficult for them to wiggle out when caught.

We owe it to employees to teach them what we expect and the reasons why we have them do something. When team members understand why they are doing something they are more inclined to do it to the best of their ability. This translates into more productive and happier employees and a happier you as your employees understand what it is you expect from them. Ultimately this leads to a more profitable store and that should be every owner’s goal.


 Getting To The Heart Of The Matter, Hiring The Wrong People Can Dishearten Your Staff

Hopefully, your store is one of those places where employees look forward to coming to work. You know what I’m talking about it’s that environment where everyone is happy to be there. Employees know they are there to get a job done and take pride in the service they offer to the customers. It’s the type of job where people may have an off day but their co-workers are supportive and help pick them up. It happens to all of us. These jobs have a manager who interacts with the employees and takes a real interest in each of them. The boss may take time to say hello and greet everyone. They know their employees by name and may even know their families. Unfortunately, not every workplace has such a camaraderie amongst the team members. There is any number of reasons this can happen but a major contributor to an unhappy workplace can be the hiring of an employee with a poor attitude.

Unhappy employees don’t always start out that way. They can get through an interview without any problem and they may begin working and get along fine. It is after they are hired that their true colors begin to show. These people are the type who start to complain to their co-workers when they are unhappy about something. It could be a work schedule they don’t care for that triggers the griping. The complaints tend to be general and not geared toward any particular person at first. When no one addresses the complaining the employee gets more vocal over time and begins to find other issues they don’t like. They are never limited to one gripe and constantly find perceived problems and share those perceptions with others. The complaining spreads as this person talk to others and suddenly people who were perfectly happy with their jobs and managers are taking exception to things. Where someone was fine with working at night or on weekends in the past they now feel they should not be expected to work when other jobs don’t require these types of hours. Never mind that they chose to work in retail which does require night and weekend workers. People begin to show up to work in bad moods anticipating that a non-existent problem is going to impact them again.

Now that the workplace has been infected with the virus of negativity and people are coming to the job with poor attitudes the problem manifests itself in other forms. Those who used to smile and engage customers with pleasantries are now frowning and giving curt, “Hello’s” to patrons. Customers get annoyed and share their experiences with friends and family. The atmosphere of the store is poisoned and like any poison, people avoid it lest they become ill or worse.

Guess what, this is not where the problem for your business ends. When workers become dissatisfied their performance wanes as well. The person who used to take care to stock the shelves properly and put merchandise where it belongs now puts merchandise in the general area. Clothing on racks that were once sized and straightened are now fortunate to make it onto a hanger let alone the arm of a fixture. The appearance of the store declines and employees don’t care. There is a malaise that sets in and an employee thinks to himself, “Why should I bother to fix it if no one else cares why should I?” If customers refuse to come in due to poor service they certainly won’t come in to shop in a store that is trashed.

To get to the heart of the matter you have to look at the culture of your store and what it is that is causing your store to decline. If everything was going well until you brought in that new hire then you have to get rid of that infection quickly. Afterwards be careful in your hiring process. Take a careful look at the applications, resumes and employment stability. Coupled with background checks and pre-employment screening your workplace can get back to the place it was but it is never easy. Bad habits are easier to create than break and your team may now have a bunch to break. Have a heart and be thoughtful in your hiring practices, your employees will love you for it.


Intoxicated By Love Or Simply Intoxicated, Recognize The Difference And The Risks Posed By Employees Using Drugs Or Alcohol On The Job

Pat Benatar once described love as a battlefield. Others have described love as intoxicating. For many romantics, February and Valentine’s Day is the month of love as people express their love for one another with flowers, chocolates, gifts, and dining. Being “drunk with love” describes that adrenaline flowing through us when we are around the one who makes our heart beat faster. We may get nervous and feel sick when we think about that special someone. We certainly don’t act like ourselves. Employers need to know that being intoxicated on love is the ONLY intoxicating influence your workers should ever be under while at work.

Intoxicated employees bring many problems with them to the workplace. They bring the chance of injury to themselves or others because they are not in full control of their faculties or bodies. The worker who is under the influence of drugs (legal or not) or alcohol could easily fall from ladders, improperly lift heavy items or use poor judgment when operating equipment. Impaired judgment creates hazards that can impact that employee and the people they are working around. A compactor, cardboard baler, powered forklift and a powered shopping cart mover are all pieces of equipment that require a user to be 18 years of age or older to use them. Is a worker under the influence going to avoid using equipment they are not certified to use? On top of that if the equipment is used and proper training has not been documented or the operator is underage and an injury happens OSHA may levy huge fines on the store. If you have a member of your team operating equipment while intoxicated you could be setting your business up for failure.

Employees who come to work under the influence of drugs or alcohol or who use them during a break can also be making poor mental decisions. Would you trust a cashier who is buzzed to accurately count back change to a customer? Would you be comfortable with a closing manager who has been drinking properly closing your store? Are you confident all of the registers have been closed out and money secured? Can you be sure the doors have been locked and the alarms set? With impaired workers, there is the possibility that merchandise is stocked in the wrong locations which can lead to selling merchandise below their marked prices due to store error. Do you have a person in charge of vendor credits and chargeback processing? If they are popping pills are they properly processing paperwork? Don’t count on it and don’t count on getting full credit dollars either.

Let’s not overlook the role that drug abuse and alcoholism can and do play in employee theft. This is not a blanket indictment accusing all users of being thieves but in many internal theft cases, drug and alcohol problems are a factor. Both of these habits are expensive and in order to feed the habit some people resort to theft and fraud. They may steal cash from a register or take merchandise to sell for their next fix or bottle. The theft can be in the form of passing merchandise or under-ringing merchandise for friends. It can include manipulating receipts to create fake refunds for themselves. An employee may even steal from your customers by failing to give them the proper change back from a transaction and pocketing it. Some cashiers will steal credit cards or gift cards.

Finally, there is the chance that if you hire a drug user or someone who drinks at work or reports to work under the influence they could cause customer service issues. Is your employee short tempered because they need/want a drink or hit they can’t get and they take it out on a customer? If the employee is under the influence of drugs or alcohol is their behavior irritating a patron? Your worker may not be comprehending what a customer is saying to them and forcing the customers to repeat themselves. The myriad of potential problems can raise concerns that customers may not want to return to a store in the future.

February may be a month of love and some of your employees may be caught up in the intoxication of it. Just remember to allow it to be the only thing they are under the influence of.     It only makes sound business sense not to hire people who use illegal drugs. Take steps to avoid needless problems and keep your business prosperous by not hiring people who cannot pass a drug test and/or show up to work under the influence of alcoholic beverages. 


Store Safety Impacts Profits: Keep Your Store Safe During The Winter Months

Accidents can be costly to businesses. In fact, according to the OSHA website, “It has been estimated that employers pay almost $1 billion dollars a week for direct workers’ compensation costs alone. Direct costs include workers’ compensation payments, medical expenses and costs for legal services.”

This does not take into consideration expenditures on general liability claims made by customers against businesses for accidents. The impact of a customer claim can be significant as well and according to thehartford.com “The Hartford Reports: More Than 40% Of Small Businesses Will Experience A Claim In The Next 10 Years,” March 30, 2015, the average cost of a customer injury or damage claim is $30,000 while a customer slip and fall incident is $20,000. A struck by object claim not identified as being specific to a customer or employee is listed at an average cost of $10,000. Consider then that the risk of these accidents taking place during the winter months increases significantly. What steps can you take to reduce the possibility you may have to pay out on a claim, especially during the winter months?

Slips and Falls

Slips and falls are not uncommon all year round, however, winter increases the chances of a slip on icy sidewalks and parking lots. Additionally, people will track ice and snow into the building leaving puddles of water that contribute to slip accidents. It is necessary for store employees to be diligent in placing wet floor signs near entrances and drying those areas too. Allowing standing water to remain because “people just keep tracking it in” is not an excuse that will hold water in an accident settlement case (pun intended). It is worth investing in wet area or all weather mats for the front doors to aid in the drying of shoes as customers enter the building. Have umbrella bags available for wet umbrellas. Bure sure to have deicers and anti-icers on hand for unexpected snow and ice storms to help keep sidewalks and curbs safe for patrons and employees. Stores located in traditionally warmer climates must be even more diligent because ice and snow are not as common; finding shovels and proper equipment when that rare snow or ice storm strikes can be a difficult task. Hardware stores run out of necessary items quickly as people without the tools come in at the sudden threat of storms.

Strains and Sprains

You or one of your staff may go outside to shovel snow from your sidewalks. Be careful! Not only is there the danger of being exposed to the cold too long, there is also a chance of a strain injury resulting from the shoveling of snow and ice. In an article in webmd.com titled, “Shoveling Snow Injures Thousands Each Year,” Jan 20, 2011, by Kelli Miller, the author points out that shoveling sends on average 11,000 adults and children to the hospital each year. She continues in her article, “The American Journal of Emergency Medicine details the most common health hazards associated with shoveling snow. Snow shoveling can lead to bad backs, broken bones, head injuries and even deadly heart problems.” Carefully watch those you may send out to shovel and rotate them in and out. Look for signs of excessive stress or pain and if necessary contact a local EMS station.

Parking Lots

Ensure your employees are safe if you send them outside to collect shopping carts or clear snow from parking spaces. Have orange or yellow reflective safety vests on hand and require those working outside to wear them. Moving vehicles in a parking lot may not stop quickly enough on the icy pavement if they don’t see the employee in time. The safety vest provides additional visibility to help alert drivers. While it should go without saying make sure weather appropriate clothing such as jackets, gloves and even scarfs are available for employees to help them avoid frostbite or other cold-weather ailments.

Struck-by’s

Don’t overlook the risk of ice falling from a rooftop. Too much weight from accumulated snow and ice or a slight increase in temperatures may result in ice and snow sliding off an overhang or roof. Be sure to monitor for such hazards and take proactive measures to clear potential problems before they result in an injury.

Accidents can happen anytime but winter offers unique challenges. Be pro-active and make sure you and your managers are doing all you can to make your employees and customers safe when they visit the store to work or shop.


Should They Stay Or Should They Go? What To Consider With Seasonal Hires

It’s that time of year when all store owners and managers start to make personnel decisions. Remember those people you hired in late August, maybe in September or even as late as October or November? Remember the conversations you may have had with them discussing how this was a “seasonal” position? You may have really dangled the carrot in front of them and told them that if they worked hard and showed initiative they might be retained on your staff after the holidays. Guess what? It’s time now for you to start taking a hard look at your staff and making some decisions and that isn’t always pleasant. Now you have to evaluate those employees and consider whether you want to keep them or you may have to decide if you can afford to keep them.  What should you be thinking about at this point with regard to employee retention decisions?

Performance

You may have told the employee that retention after the holiday season would be based on their performance. Did you take time periodically to watch how this person interacted with customers or other employees? Did you ever get any customer complaints about how this employee treated them or compliments about their service? Did you keep track of those complaints or compliments so you would have something to fall back on should you choose to end their employment? Having documentation in hand makes it easier to have those conversations. The other resources you need to rely on are your supervisors. It is wise to have a management meeting to discuss each person’s opinion about a seasonal worker. One person may like the way the employee performed on a cash register while another had issues with sales floor performance. Getting several perspectives will give a better picture of an employee during the season.

Punctuality

Review an employee’s time sheets or attendance record. If you don’t keep track of tardiness or call-outs you should start. Just because a supervisor or manager says someone was always late or always called out does not mean it was so. It often happens that during a busy time or when everything seems to be going wrong that if someone shows up late to work it is inflated in our minds. We are prone to feeling like this is a regular occurrence when in fact it only took place the one time. The employee may have called out another time but the heat of the moment distorts the reality of the employee’s attendance record. Review documentation so you know whether punctuality or attendance was really a problem.

Attitude

I shouldn’t have to include this one but sometimes the obvious isn’t so obvious. What kind of attitude was displayed while this person worked? Did they arrive to work with a negative attitude? Perhaps they were always negative about customers or even talking about other employees. A poor attitude can rub off on others and become a drain on morale. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of getting rid of someone who displays a poor attitude. I should also mention that it is worth giving consideration to someone who always has a sunny disposition. Just as a negative attitude spreads a black cloud over the other workers and can be sensed by customers a positive attitude can have the same impact. Shoppers like feeling welcomed and that their business is appreciated. Co-workers enjoy being around a fellow employee who makes work fun or knows the value of a warm greeting. This does not mean this worker does not have to be able to perform but they may not need to be a superstar if they bring something of value to the table.

Honesty and Integrity

Has this staff member demonstrated an impeccable record of honest behaviors? Are you confident this person has proven to be honest? If you track register overages and shortages take a look back at this employee’s daily register tallies. Be sure there is no concern over shortages or overages either of which could be an indicator of theft. Has there been any question about a purchase or a package check inspection? Is this person always upfront about issues they have encountered? Even something as seemingly small as having a friend punch a time clock for them indicates an integrity issue at the least. If you have a concern it would be in your best interest to cut this person from your roster.

Ending a seasonal employee’s job isn’t always easy but it is necessary. Make sure you use sound criteria and good judgment when deciding if you will keep or release someone after the holidays.