What Does Employee Theft Look Like?

Just the other day I was listening to my daughter tell me about a new store manager that has been hired for their retail building. As she was talking to me I realized she was telling me about a problem I am aware of but had never considered it in terms of a type of employee theft. The new store manager is addressing the issue right out of the starting gate and I must say I am impressed. The issue that has plagued this particular store is that of changing employee availabilities. Employees in retail should be hired with the expectation that they will work varying shifts, nights, weekends and holidays. A new person may be hired with the understanding there is a specific day or time of day once or twice a week they cannot work. This could be for school, childcare or a second job but that limitation should not be for weekends off or no night or evenings at all. The sad thing is I have seen it all too often, a candidate is hired, starts the job and within a few weeks or months they are changing their availability. This was the problem my daughter’s store was contending with and it was stripping the management team of night and weekend coverage. The store manager’s had been approving these requests. This issue had a snowball effect and had the unintended consequence, in my opinion, of making it more difficult for the store to stop shoplifting.
     

Training to reduce employee theft of any type is a must for any retailer interested in maintaining a profitable store. Theft comes in many forms, as you can see above. Being able to identify and deal with those problems before they get out of control is important. Loss Prevention Systems Inc. has specialized training available to store managers. This training will provide managers with the necessary skills to significantly reduce their exposure to dishonest employee activity and shoplifting. These skill sets lead to reduced shortage and more profit.
     

In what sense was permitting workers to change availabilities a form of employee theft you may ask? It was not (and is not if you are contending with it yourself) overt like passing merchandise to a friend. It is not the same as stealing cash from the register and pocketing it. It is stealing from the management team the ability to adequately cover the store with enough people. It is stealing from other employees by requiring them to work the less desirable shifts and the weekends while the employee who is permitted to restrict their availability gets the preferred time slots. It is stealing from the morale of the entire team as people get short-tempered and snippy with each other and customers. 
     

How does it become more difficult to stop shoplifting when availabilities are permitted to be restricted? The same people are constantly placed on the weekend schedules and when one or two of those employees call out for a shift there may be no one to replace them. That reduces floor coverage and while I have limited experience with it I have seen a pronounced impact in my daughter’s store. She has closed the store with herself and one other employee on more than one occasion. She has told me of problems with finding multiple tags from clothing on the floor after suspected shoplifters have left the store. With too few people, the staff cannot adequately provide sufficient customer service to deter the thieves. There are not enough people so one can stay near the doors in case of a clothing alarm activation. Limited availability does impact merchandise shortage due to shoplifting.
     

So what has this new store manager started in his first week in the store? He has told the entire team that for the first six months of employment no availability changes are permitted. Requests for availability modifications have been met with employment terminations for two people so far, as I understand it. I say bravo to the manager for getting a major problem under control.
     

Even if you don’t want to consider allowing availability changes to be a form of theft, other things like time card fraud and price manipulation are. Training to reduce employee theft can help managers navigate the sometimes murky waters of what is and what is not theft. It can also enlighten you to methods your employees are stealing from you and you did not know it. Likewise, training to identify and stop shoplifting will also add to the store’s bottom line. Let Loss Prevention Systems Inc. be the portal to all of training your management team will need to lead a fair and profitable team.

For more information about employee theft, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Employee Theft Reduction Training Must Include More Than Just Shoplifting Prevention

If you are not conducting employee theft reduction training with employees and managers to help stop shoplifting and internal theft you are doing yourself a disservice. Theft takes place in many different forms. If store workers don’t know how it can happen and steps they can take to prevent it criminals will eventually take advantage of your business. A trend is apparently taking place in Florida in which thieves have found vulnerability in store training and they are taking advantage of it.
     

As reported in LPM Insider Magazine, citing SunSentinal as their source, they posted a story on a recent jewelry store robbery in which a distraction was devised to steal a watch. According to the report a man had gone into a jewelry store, asked to look at the watch in a display case and “Once the subject had the watch in his possession, an unknown person set off fireworks in the vicinity of the store,” said Miami-Dade Detective Argemis Colome.” The story goes on to report that this tactic has been used in several other incidents this year with firecrackers set off near the store where the incident is taking place. In one instance an $11,400 Rolex watch was stolen when fireworks, apparently meant to simulate gunfire, were lit near the store entrance. It stands to reason that people are going to panic when anything sounding like a gunshot takes place near a store. Security of merchandise is not nor should it be the first concern. That being said, there are still grab and runs that take place regularly in retail and your staff needs to know how to prevent it.
     

Do you invest time in employee theft reduction training? If you haven’t because you don’t know what to cover or how to cover it below are a few suggestions:

• Tools shoplifters use; purses, bags, baby strollers, booster bags and box stuffing to name a few.

• How some shoplifters dress; unseasonable clothing, ball caps pulled low and keeping dark sunglasses on while shopping in the store.

• Things employees can and shouldn’t say to customers they think are stealing.

• Controlling merchandise being shown from a showcase and limiting quantities.

• Till tapping; what is it and how do you prevent it.

• Short change artists; how do they operate and what cashiers should do to prevent it.

• Robbery prevention tips.

• What to do and not to do during a robbery.

• How retail anti-theft devices stop shoplifting and how to properly use them. This includes the importance of testing equipment and removing devices or detuning tags at the end of a sale.

• How to properly respond to electronic article surveillance alarms.

• Signs a co-worker may be stealing and how to report suspicious activity.

If this seems like a detailed list of topics it is. It is also not an all-inclusive list. There are more topics that should be covered in employee theft reduction training. Unless a manager or owner is trained in Loss Prevention it would be reasonable to seek the assistance of a company that specializes in Retail Loss Prevention issues. Bill Bregar and his team at Loss Prevention Systems Inc. provide training in a number of formats in addition to consulting with businesses on theft prevention.
     

Theft is going to impact every retailer. In some instances where distractions such as fireworks or a display of a weapon may supersede any prevent measures that have been put in place. There are still things that can be done to minimize those risks. On a day-to-day basis anti-theft tools and training can stop shoplifting and employee theft. The key is to ensure employees are properly trained and use that training daily to keep a store safe and profitable.

For more information on employee theft reduction training, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Little Labels Have A Big Impact On Shortage Reduction

Bigger is often considered better but there are times when smaller is better for example with little labels. C’mon, let’s be honest when we were kids which gift did we always eye first? That’s right the BIG one! When I was old enough to cut the first piece of my own birthday cake I don’t recall ever making it a small slice. When fishermen go out and return with their stories how many of them recount their stories of the little fish that got away? None, every fish that gets away is the big one. What company seeks the opportunity to build the smallest skyscraper in the world? The competition is always seeking to make the biggest, tallest building even if it’s only by 1 foot. Sometimes things just start out big and ingenuity and technology finds ways to reduce the size of things while giving them more power and making them better. Radios used to be big and bulky, until technology made transistor radios small enough to be carried in a person’s hand. Televisions were so large they were often built into cabinets. The size was a result of the cathode ray tubes used to provide the picture. Over the years television sets became smaller and eventually the LCD television was introduced providing clearer, sharper and richer pictures. Screens are larger but the units have thinner profiles and are much lighter to carry. Similarly, over time, labels have also become smaller yet deliver the same protection to stop shoplifting for retailers.

Labels are adhesive electronic article surveillance tags that are applied to merchandise simply by pulling them off a roll and sticking them to a product. The labels contain a circuit that sends out a radio frequency wave and electronic article surveillance pedestals detect that wave. You may have noticed pedestals near the doors leading in and out of a store and in some instances near halls leading to areas where merchandise is prohibited such as restrooms. Pedestals can pick up the radio waves from labels even when the merchandise they are attached to is concealed inside of something. When pedestals detect a label an alarm is activated sounding a loud chirping or beeping noise and flashing LED lights. The alarms attract the attention of employees and they conduct thorough receipt checks and stop shoplifting from taking place before the thief leaves the store.

 There was a time when these labels were relatively large and took up a lot of space on the packaging of merchandise. I remember trying to apply them to packages of medicine and had to be careful I did not conceal warning information or ingredients that could interact with other medications a customer might be taking. There were some items I had to forego protecting because the labels were covering up vital information that had to be seen. Now there are smaller, clear labels available and that problem has almost been entirely wiped out. The labels have a clear viewing window that allows consumers to read critical information on a package while allowing retailers to protect their products. The window on these small labels allows a barcode to be scanned something larger labels could cover up in the past. As a Loss Prevention Manager I wanted to protect as many items as I could especially since we had known theft issues in our over-the-counter medicines and cosmetics. These high theft departments were also the ones that posed the greatest difficulty in tagging so I could stop shoplifting that was taking place. I have no doubt whatsoever that clear labels would have significantly aided in shortage reduction in these areas. Smaller tags equals more merchandise protection and you can never have too much of that.

 Retailers, bigger is better when it comes to income from customer purchases. Smaller is better when it comes to shortage numbers. Take my advice, use labels and especially the clear labels along with electronic article surveillance pedestals and see BIG results in your next inventory.

For more information about labels contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.