Uncategorized — Page 103

Trusted Background Check Experts make all the difference.

January 25, 2012 by Staff Editor

Hopefully in this day and age you are aware that employee background checks are an option for employers before they make a job offer to a potential candidate. I hope even more you are utilizing these background checks before you make said offer. Modern technology has made conducting pre employment screening and employee background checks more accurate and affordable and our litigious society has made them that much more necessary.

Did you know that your business is liable for its employee’s actions? If one of your employees injuries or commits a crime against a customer or fellow employee then you may get sued and end up paying big bucks. Did you also know that it is harder than ever to get a reliable reference from past employers? Try it sometime. Due to lawsuits and claims of defamation of character, many companies will now only verify dates of employment. That is fine and dandy if the employee was a good employee, but what if that last date of employment was because of theft? Criminal background checks are the only way to really know what type of employee you are hiring. Now, criminal background checks are hard to do yourself so I recommend getting your needed background checks done by a reliable Background Check Company.

There is more than one Background Check Company available for hire. In fact, there are many. What you may not know is that not every Background Check Company uses licensed and trained Background Check Experts to conduct the services they offer. When you pay for employee background checks you expect the process to be thorough and complete. This is hard to accomplish without trained background check experts conducting the pre employment screening. My recommendation is to check out the credentials of the Background Check Company you are looking at before you sign the dotted line.

For more information on employee background checks, background checks, background check experts, criminal background checks, or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: background check company, Background checks, criminal background check, employee background checks, pre employment screening

Employee Theft : The #1 Business Killer

January 25, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

One of the biggest issues a business can encounter is rampant employee theft. Most small businesses do not factor in shrink losses into their business plan when laying out a strategy for hopeful success. These same excited business owners can’t wait to flip on the “open” sign but many do not and have not any idea the problems internal theft can and more likely will cause them.

Having a shoplifter enter your business who steals $50.00 in product on one occasion is a scary enough thought ; imagine, when you do the math, how much you have to actually sell to make up that $50.00 loss. Now hypothetically envision you hired that shoplifter, gave them keys to your business, your stockroom and your registers. Visualize that every shift that “employee” works they steal $50.00. Would you have any idea how to conduct an employee theft investigation? Would you have any idea that it was internal theft? Would you be blind in trust of your employees that you would not even think to consider the losses could be a result of employee theft? Let that soak in a bit because this is what happens to business owners everyday and many never recover. As stated earlier employee theft is the biggest business killer on the block.

So what can you do? Preferably you start your business plan including loss prevention in the initial budget, but what if you didn’t? Can you catch up? Is it too late? The first thing to do is access the controls you currently have in place. Start with your hiring process. Do you have a pre employment screening process? Do you conduct employee/criminal background checks? If not then how do you know you aren’t hiring the “shoplifter” we discussed earlier? Do you ask pertinent questions during the job interview process? Do you take notes and conduct follow up interviews to flesh out any potential issues? Do you have a new hire orientation explaining that your company conducts employee theft investigations and prosecutes anyone caught stealing?

What physical loss prevention tools do you have currently? Do you have cameras? Where are the cameras pointing? Are they set up over the registers to deter internal theft? Are they set up in your stockroom to aid in potential employee theft investigations? Do you have any “pin hole” camera kits to aid in internal theft investigations? Do you have anyone employed who is trained to conduct an employee theft investigation? Do you have daily inventory category counts of product to monitor losses? Do you have daily register audits? Do you ensure employees count in and out on their own registers? Do you conduct bag and pocket checks whenever an employee leaves your business?

It is never to late to take steps to deter employee theft. The key is setting up a strategy that starts with the hiring and orientation, then set up your physical controls (cameras/audits etc). Deterrence does not work on everyone so it is important to ensure that you always consider every loss incurred as being perpetrated by an employee. You should take steps to narrow the focus of when the losses occurred, who was working and who had access to the items stolen. At this point you can utilize your daily reports and cameras to catch the employee who is committing the loss. Once you have gathered the evidence and obtain a confession (I recommend that only a trained interviewer conduct a loss prevention interview). Then it is very important to follow through with conviction and termination. That will also help deter other employees from conducting internal theft.

For more information on employee theft , employee theft investigation or internal theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: employee theft, employee theft investigation, internal theft

Stop Shoplifting With A Label?

January 25, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

How does a small paper label the size of a postage stamp make shoplifters look elsewhere? If it is an RF label that will activate a Checkpoint system at your customer doors! These small RF labels can be “hidden” in plain sight on your merchandise. The result is that shoplifting will go down and so will inventory shrinkage and loss.

RF security labels come in many varieties and sizes. From postage stamp size to 1¾” square and many sizes in between. The most common RF label is the 410. It is 1½ “square. RF labels come in plain, barcode and black.

Many of the plain RF security labels can be printed on with your thermal transfer printer that you use to print pricing labels now. Chances are that we have the same size plain paper label that you now print on as a RF Security label. This eliminates some labor of adding an additional label to your product.

Don’t want to print on your Checkpoint labels? Consider using a “barcode” RF label. The barcode is inert and cannot be read by you scanner. However, shoplifters will not know this and the barcode helps to disguise the label.

Black Checkpoint labels are, well, black in color. They work very well on dark colored packaging, liquor and wine bottles or some hidden place that you may want a label placed. How about putting black Checkpoint labels inside the back pocket of a pair of designer jeans?

You can stop shoplifting with a small paper label, a Checkpoint security tag! Get on board now and send shoplifters packing down the street to your competition that does not have Checkpoint security tags or labels.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint labels, Checkpoint security tags, and other RF labels that can help you stop shoplifting in your business.

For more information on Checkpoint labels, Checkpoint security tags, RF labels, RF security labels and how to stop shoplifting contact us at RF label or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Checkpoint labels, Checkpoint security tags, RF label, RF labels, RF security labels, stop shoplifting

Preventing Shoplifting: Is It Possible To Stop Or Manage?

January 25, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Shoplifting prevention is one element to a successful loss prevention strategy. Many loss prevention executives and employees have put years of thought into the most effective way to prevent shoplifting. It is widely believed that a global approach to shortage is the most effective fluid method.

A global and encompassing loss prevention strategy should be used to effectively reduce shortage and safety issues from the business environment. Shoplifting can attribute for over half of all shortage in stores that are poorly setup or have no loss prevention strategy in place. To prevent shoplifting, a retailer can use a combination of loss prevention policies, employee education, personnel, and retail anti theft devices. By instituting loss prevention policies, a retailer can attempt to prevent the loss from occurring. These policies come in the form of cash controls, merchandise limits on the shelves and fitting rooms, and proper placement of sales staff. Education of sales employees is also a key element component to prevent shoplifting. By educating employees on how to prevent shoplifting, they can effectively deter most individuals.

When the above elements do not work to prevent shoplifting, a retailer can take a more aggressive approach. Hiring and staffing loss prevention employees has proven to be a very effective approach to shortage reduction. These employees are trained to identify behaviors that are indicative of shoplifters. These employees identify and apprehend individuals engaged in shoplifting. These employees are often assisted by retail anti theft devices. These retail anti theft devices include: CCTV systems, door locks, security article tags, and shoplifter databases. These systems become increasingly important when Organized Retail Crime is an element in the business.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store for retail anti theft devices that can help you prevent shoplifting in your business.

For more information on how you can use retail anti theft devices to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Prevent Shoplifting, Retail Anti Theft Devices

Keep Your Drills Under Wraps

January 25, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

I was in our local home improvement center last week when I started looking at new drills. I know from years of working in the home improvement industry that drills are a huge shrink item. They are easy to pawn or sell off at construction sites. In the metro market I worked at, they could even be traded on the street like currency, for drugs.

This store, probably had the same problems I did, only they were doing something a little different to prevent shoplifting. They had the Spider Wrap in place. Almost every one of their drills was now enrobed in this cross band retail anti theft device.

The Spider Wrap is almost like a ribbon on a birthday present. Looping around both lengths of the box are cords that prevent the box from being opened. On more than one occasion, I have apprehended shoplifters who took the drills out of their cases when they tried to steal them. Having an alarm wrapped tight around the box sure makes a difference.

The cords on the Spider Wrap connect to an alarm in the center. If anyone tries to tamper with the alarm, it will sound. It’s a lot harder to come up with ways to steal a heavy, bulky power drill case than it is to hide the drill in a purse or coat. On top of the size issue, one would still risk being noticed when they try to leave a store with the Spider Wrap still intact creating an audible alarm.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store for retail anti theft devices that can help you prevent shoplifting in your business.

For more information on how you can use retail anti theft devices to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Prevent Shoplifting, Retail Anti Theft Devices

Simple, Yet Effective

January 25, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

One of our biggest theft items in our store is a $500 vacuum cleaner. I know that this vacuum is sold in just about every big box retailer out there. It is one of the products that big box, middle market and home improvement all have in common. I know that where I work, we have had a hard time figuring out how to stop shoplifting using Checkpoint labels.

First off, the Checkpoint security tag is not a good option for this product. There really isn’t a place to attach it, so we stick just to the RF Security labels. Initially, we didn’t have any sort of RF label on the product. That was a big mistake. After our corporate LP team realized the scope of our losses across the company, they decided to step up their game.

The next step they took was to have RF security labels on the outside of the box, thinking it would be a good deterrent. Well, that worked for about a minute. The thieves just picked the sticky RF label right off and out the door they went.

The next step was to use the same RF labels, but put them on the inside of the box where they could not be peeled off the box. Well, words got out that our stores were no longer free and easy targets and our shrink losses started a vast decline.

Sometimes it really is just as simple as that to stop shoplifting.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Checkpoint labels, Checkpoint security tags, and other RF labels that can help you stop shoplifting in your business.

For more information on RF security labels, RF security tags, Checkpoint labels, Checkpoint security tags, RF labels, and how to stop shoplifting contact us at RF label or call 1.770.426.0547

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Follow the Paper Trail

January 23, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

I recently concluded an employee theft investigation. This was a little different than ones I had previously worked on. This case of employee theft wasn’t just about an employee in my store stealing; it was about a partnership between an employee and a vendor.

I was noticing through routine audits that paperwork for some direct from vendor merchandise seemed to be incomplete for a very long time. The policy was within 24 hours, but this manager waited for weeks to complete it. After questioning the manager as to why it took so long, and reiterating the 24-hour policy, it still wasn’t completed.

After the first month or so, I noticed serious discrepancies in what we had for inventory and what we had in invoiced amounts. There was an increase in the orders, but no increase in sales or stock levels in the store. I immediately started an employee theft investigation on the manager.

One of the first steps I took to determine if it was an employee theft case was to watch the deliveries on CCTV. Sure enough, this manager greeted the same delivery guy for each order. Then the delivery guy loaded up cases of the product in question. Under normal circumstances, it would not be unusual for this vendor to remove any “old” product. Since the manger did not record and charge the vendor back for these cases (per policy), I knew I had a case of employee theft.

The end result of this employee theft investigation was that the manager let the vendor take out cases of product but never charged them back to the company. This way the vendor kept his high commission of the product. The manager later met up with the vendor and took the cases home with her for personal use.

This was a case where the paper led a trail in an unexpected way to employee theft.

For more information on employee theft , employee theft investigation or internal theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: employee theft, employee theft investigation, internal theft

Pick Them Out of the Crowd

January 23, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Have you ever seen a shoplifter? Chances are, you probably have, but you may not have known it at the time. One of the first steps to prevent shoplifting in your store is to know what you are looking for.

Is someone avoiding help from your associates? They may be trying to avoid detection. Are they lingering in back corners or aisles of the store, maybe taking a bit too long in the fitting room? Possibly waiting to work up the courage to conceal the item. How about picking up large quantities of merchandise, but not looking at sizes, or varying the colors? They may be looking to steal them and resell the items. In these cases Customer Service might be the only thing needed to prevent shoplifting from these small time thieves.

Now, what if you see someone running his or her fingers over a price tag, but not actually looking at the price? What if they are looking more at the legs of a pair of jeans than the style or size? This shoplifter is more than likely looking for some sort of retail anti theft device. They might be informed enough to look for a hard tag on clothing, or a soft label hidden in a price tag.

If this is the case, it may mean good news for you. Typically, this sort of shoplifter is looking for the retail anti theft device, because it means they have a higher chance of being caught, than if the merchandise does not have any tags. You have prepared yourself to prevent shoplifting by using these tools. The shoplifter will move on to an easier target.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store for retail anti theft devices that can help you prevent shoplifting in your business.

For more information on how you can use retail anti theft devices to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Prevent Shoplifting, Retail Anti Theft Devices

What can retailers do to prevent shoplifting?

January 23, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

The crime of shoplifting occurs daily and industry analysts believe thieves recover nearly $25 million in stolen merchandise each day. In order to prevent shoplifting retailers must be armed with the information and equipment to combat the rising shortage numbers. Retail anti theft devices such as EAS systems, ink tags and lanyards prevent shoplifting through deterrence by creating an unattractive environment for shoplifting to fester and thrive.

Loss prevention professionals believe good customer service is the best deterrent and will prevent shoplifting by enhancing the shopping experience. Many of the nation’s leading retailers have the budget to employ small armies of undercover security personnel that will physically detain shoplifters but this approach to controlling shrinkage comes with significant liability considerations.

A company I once worked for always trained its loss prevention personnel that deterrence is the best policy and to focus more on eliminating opportunities for shoplifters. Customer theft accounts for less than 40% of annual shrink and the rest comes from employee theft or administration lapses. If you can control your merchandise you can control your shortage number. Retail anti theft devices are easy to use and do not adversely impact your commitment to outstanding customer service because they can be removed conveniently during the checkout process.

Retailers are now learning to adapt to the emerging trends and many large department store chains have been redesigned to accommodate best practices for retail anti theft devices. Most shoplifters are opportunists so reducing your merchandise’s exposure should be a priority and is a proven method in mitigating annual shortage.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store for retail anti theft devices that can help you prevent shoplifting in your business.

For more information on how you can use retail anti theft devices to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Prevent Shoplifting, Retail Anti Theft Devices

The New Gate Keepers

January 23, 2012 by Staff Editor Leave a Comment

Retail anti theft devices are getting more advanced in their technology. It’s not just a case of “do you want a hard or soft tag for that item”. The various ways to prevent shoplifting through the use of retail anti theft devices are more sophisticated. There is more consideration on aesthetics and customer impact than ever before. Take the Nano Gate for example:

The Nano Gate is an alternative to the bulky pedestals at the entrance doors. Those pedestals are a great solution to prevent shoplifting because they do send a clear message. It lets the would be thieves and customers feel like they are walking into a fortress by having to walk through the pedestals flanking every possible doorway. They are not always the most pleasing to the eye, and are more intimidating by design. Effective? Yes. Fashionable? No.

Smaller retailers and boutique settings could benefit from the Nano Gates’ more compact size and less aggressive looking overall design. They are still highly effective deterrents by working in conjunction with hard and soft tags as well as the newer, sleeker looking retail anti theft devices like the Jewel Lok.

The Jewel lok is a form of hard tag designed specifically for smaller items like jewelry. The U shaped clasp slips easily onto an item without the need to pierce through the merchandise. It is a visual deterrent to prevent shoplifting. Like its counterpart the Nano Gate, Jewel Loks are much more pleasing to the eye.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store for retail anti theft devices that can help you prevent shoplifting in your business.

For more information on how you can use retail anti theft devices to prevent shoplifting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Prevent Shoplifting, Retail Anti Theft Devices