When you are looking to hire a job candidate how do you go about qualifying them? Are you looking for someone that exhibits the necessary job skills, education and experience, or is it just because the have a lack of anything negative? Just because these applicants passed your background checks does not mean that they are a qualified potential employee for your company.

Showing a lack of weaknesses is not the same as showing strengths. Being able to discern the difference between the two will only benefit your company by hiring those that make your company stronger as a whole. Hiring employees who exhibit strength in skills, or experience, or judgment will provide far better results than the employee who simply does not have any glaring reasons not to hire them.

That doesn’t mean that background checks are not a needed part of the hiring process. It means that the pre employment screening is one of many steps that should be taken to qualify a potential job applicant before they are hired.

The take- away is to start to hire differently. Set a higher standard for the employees you hire. Have an expectation that they know the job they are being hired for. They should have experience in handling and diffusing customer complaints, and how to not make customers upset in the first place. Employees should be able to work with minimal supervision. An employee who has to be constantly monitored will only waste your time and resources in the long run.

To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547 

It was Friday evening and I was leaving my office. It had been a long week to say the least. I had closed on 3 employee theft cases, began an investigation into a $25k cash loss at one store, and played host to a Regional Vice President for some market visits. Knowing I didn’t have a ton of food at home, I stopped at the grocery store after leaving work. It was the first of the month, after 5 on a Friday. The place was packed! I shop at a local grocer for just about everything. I stay away from the big box retailers since I like my money to stay in my community. My family also owns a small business, so I love giving back to the “little guy” so to speak. 

I head in, fighting the crowds and grab a buggy. I start with the essentials and then make my way to the meats. I’m in the middle of a debate inside my head on whether I should go with the turkey breast or ground turkey, when two guys catch my eye. A few feet down, they begin filling a shopping cart with as many cuts of steak as they can. At first I thought, “Hey, someone’s grilling tonight”, but then I quickly realized that they were going to shoplifting steaks!

After the buggy was loaded with what was later determined to be 42 cuts of meat, valued at about a thousand dollars, they walked pretty quickly to a corner of the store. I knew what was going on so I made a phone call to the store (smart phones are great!) and asked for a manager. As I was on the phone, I watched as they pair started placing the steaks into a vacuum cleaner box. At first the manager thought I was playing a phone prank, but after some convincing, he met on an aisle just as the pair was heading to the checkout line. He made a quick call to the local police, who were surprised that someone was shoplifting steaks…

These guys got caught and the manager was able to retain his profits for another day. That’s not always the case, as your employees can’t see everything at every minute of the day. This particular store didn’t have the most basic control measures in place to deter this type of activity and it will undoubtedly continue until some programs and technology are put into place. Chances are, if you are reading this, you have the same problem, and are fed up with it. Well, here’s your chance to turn the tide on shoplifters and stop meat theft in your store. With the wide range to tools out there, you’re sure to find a solution that fits your business and your budget. 

For more information, contact us: Grocery Store Meat Theft, or call 1.770.426.0547

Can I just say how excited I am that spring is finally here? The temperature has been hovering around 80 degrees for the past couple of weeks and I’ve already got my first fishing trip of the season planned. Guess that means I’ll be heading out to the nearest sporting goods store. Lucky for me I happen to work there. One of the perks of working LP there is, of course the discount. I was just saying to my fiancé how I was in need of a new fishing rod…

As strange as it may sound, people steal fishing rods. Now, I haven’t seen someone try to jam one down there pants yet (I’m sure it will happen tomorrow now that I’ve challenged the universe), but I have seen some very clever ways that both dishonest customers and employees alike have used to get an even bigger discount on that new combo, and if you’re not protecting your high end fishing rods with O-Tags, you could be the victim as well. 

I remember last year around mid-summer. It was a Friday night and there was a full moon (you know what they say about a full moon), so naturally the fishing department was jammed packed with anglers gearing up for the morning. I noticed a gentleman perusing the higher end rods so I offered some advice, since I have previously purchased the same item he was looking at. He and I talked for a good 15 minutes and I felt good that I sold him a great rod that was surely going to help my sales goal for the night. A few minutes later, I was called to the front of the store to one of the registers. 

Mind you, not all of my cashiers are expert fishermen. Nor are they well versed in the majority of high end products we sell, so it’s always a challenge to have them recognize potential fraud. With our rods, we used the O-Tag to not only provide a visible deterrent to theft, but also as a tool to assist our cashiers identify when a product should ring at a certain threshold (for these rods, it was $199 and up). I get up to the register, and I see the same customer I had spent so much time with earlier. To my surprise (not really… nothing surprises me anymore) there was a price sticker to a $19.99 tackle box over the barcode, which should have rang up $299.99. As soon as I walked over, the customer decided to leave everything and make a sprint out the door. I was proud of my cashier and even more proud of our investment in the O-Tag. 

For more information, contact us: O-Tags, or call 1.770.426.0547