I’ve been a retail manager for the same company for over 13 years. When I started in 2001, I was green and gullible. I never would have dreamed I could hire, train, and work with people on a daily basis that would wind up stealing from our company. I never thought they’d get past the interview with me, because in my mind, I could read people like books. As the store manager, I had no idea about the benefits of attending a loss prevention seminar.
Then it happened. I found some clues that led me to investigate one of my own, and I had to make the call to our LP guy. He came in and interviewed her, and then she implicated one of my assistant managers. He came back to interview her, and needless to say, I lost two employees. I acted as the witness in both interviews, and I was truly amazed by the flow and structure of that interview and how it was used to get them both to confess. I was so intrigued by the success I did some research and signed up for a seminar on interviewing.
I attended a two day seminar on different methods of interviewing; one of those being the non-confrontational interview that encourages suspects to confess by giving them the opportunity to save face. In that setting, you find out the hardships the person faces, such as bills piling up, and help them feel better about themselves when they confess. Simply put, good people make bad choices. We also learned how to conduct interviews based on different behaviors that indicate deception, which is particularly helpful when you have no idea who is really the guilty party. Another part of this loss prevention seminar was based solely around interviewing potential job candidates. That, for me, has been a priceless lesson.
When I interview people now for openings at my store, I feel like I have the advantage. If I ask about whether they were disciplined for attendance at their last job, and they say they weren’t, but are shaking their head yes, I know to dig deeper. I know now to watch their eye movements. Did you know most people look in one direction when they recall a memory, but look the other way when they create a story?
I interviewed a candidate a couple days ago for a cashier position. I use a situational interview, and avoid questions that have yes and no answers. In the loss prevention seminar, they stressed the importance of this type of interview. This young lady would listen to me ask the question, and in some cases, she would repeat the question out loud before she answered. (That is a sign of deception, meant to give them more time to think of an answer.) In the cases where she repeated the question before answering, she would answer with a situation or time while she looked up and to her left. Then as she continued with the story, and added details, she would look down and to the right. When she did the latter, her story went in different directions. I decided she was creating too many parts of her stories, and chose not to hire her.
Now, to be clear, I do not consider myself some sort of human lie detector. I simply take the behaviors exhibited during the interview, and decide if I can count on this person to give me an honest day’s work. I definitely credit the loss prevention seminar I attended for giving me this knowledge.
For more information contact us at Loss Prevention Seminar or call 1.770.426.0547