Training your personnel well on how to handle shoplifting incidents, can be an asset for any company. Excellent training is an asset. Prejudiced training is a liability for the business plus it’s bad for business. The loss prevention team and management of the store that receive training and are constantly educating themselves through out their careers, become indispensable in any company.
For more about this topic, follow the links below.
How Organizations Can Impact Loss Prevention with Improved Associate Knowledge
Four takeaways gathered over the course of transforming the way Bloomingdale’s approaches LP and safety training:
Prior to 2012, Bloomingdale’s was doing what most retail organizations do when it comes to lossprevention and safety training–relying on a number of standard training approaches like posters, classroom training, huddles, and pre-shift morning rallies. But these approaches just weren’t working.
As I contemplated this situation, I realized we weren’t focused on the right thing. We were concentrating on simply delivering training, when we should have been focused on building knowledge. Simply plastering posters on the wall or using all those other one-off approaches weren’t making our associates smarter or getting them to do the right things on the job. This dearth of knowledge was impacting our loss prevention and safety numbers.
We sought out and eventually discovered an employee knowledge platform that aligned with the organizational vision. The platform’s methodology, which was rooted in brain science principles, and its use of gamification techniques to keep associates interested, succeeded in building employee expertise over time. Since implementing the platform, we’ve reduced safety claims by 41 percent and saved $2.2 million per year, which is a $10 million savings overall.
There’s an old saying that “you have to spend money to make money,” but it’s also true that one of the best ways to make money is to avoid spending money in the wrong places. If your business is spending too much money on unnecessary business expenses – or worse, if your business is losing money due to theft by customers or employee fraud – you are letting good money go out the door. And this makes it harder for your business to be profitable because you have to work that much harder.
Here are a 20 ways to make more money and boost your profit margins by minimizing loss in your business:
- Reduce Administrative Errors: Many businesses make seemingly simple mistakes in their pricing, paperwork or bookkeeping that lead to big losses over time.
Despite the overnight gunfire spree hours earlier, turnout was low at last night’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, so we recorded highlights on video. Above is what precinct commander Capt. Pierre Davis told attendees; below, special guest Officer James Ritter, talking about the SPD Safe Place program, which has now been adopted by more than 50 cities across the country.
Toplines: Capt. Davis said a multi-city/multi-agency task force is working on the gunfire situation, which has seen recent incidents in South Park as well as West Seattle (SP also is part of the SW Precinct’s jurisdiction). None of the WS incidents have resulted in injuries – so far; the precinct is working with special teams including the Gang Unit and SWAT and trying to get more officers out on patrol to try to get ahead of the problem. They are working to identify potential suspects who might be from out of the area – he mentioned Kent, Renton, Federal Way – but spending time with family in this area.
Wal-Mart has a unique way to cut down on shoplifting
Would you knowingly buy a car with a defective engine? Of course not! So why would you hire a “defective employee”?
Daylight savings time is over and for most of us in the U.S. (yes, there are a few exceptions) we have moved our clocks and groaned at the loss of a precious hour of sleep. We have to adjust and get used to the change and eventually we do. For our personal lives there isn’t a lot of impact, once we are used to it we do benefit from the additional daylight and get to enjoy more outdoor activity. The time change is useful as a reminder for changing batteries in smoke detectors. You may even use it as a point when you will start planning your summer vacations. For business owners daylight savings time can be a reminder that it is time to conduct a store physical security review. Time changes may not impact us much individually but for retailers there is an impact for the building, employees and your customers.
The big retail stores and thousands of convenience stores across the country try to find solutions to tackle shoplifting and employee theft. The retail industry losses account to $42 billion every year, and it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention
Some shoplifters are violent. I follow these incidents and they seem to be becoming more frequent. The reasons why are many and there is plenty of blame to go around: State and local governments, courts and lax Judges, parents and even retailers themselves. Much of that is out of our control. We must keep violent and non-violent shoplifters from even entering our stores.
I recently read over an article opining the phrase “sales cures shrink”. While the author touched on both sides of the coin, I found it interesting that in today’s retail climate, anyone would think that you can simply sell your way out of losses. Let’s cut to the chase here; we’re not bringing in 20% increases over last year, hell we’re lucky to come in flat to last year. Online giants like Amazon are eating up market share like never before and if brick and mortar don’t do something fast, sales will continue to slump.