You probably know what background checks are… you might have even had one run on you. But do you really know what it means? And if you’re in HR assisting with your company’s hiring management… do you know what you’re asking for when you use a service for “Background checks”?
How about “social trace”? Ever heard of that? No, it’s not a new thing on Facebook or Twitter. It’s a check that’s run on an individual’s social security number that allows you to know what states the person has lived in and what other names they could have used. Sometimes, we get a red flag because a female’s maiden name wasn’t listed and pops up as an alias, which is pretty common and obviously nothing to worry about… but other times, we get a red flag on a social trace because the individual has used entirely different aliases—not misspellings, completely different names!
We see it all around here. There’s no telling what a new day will bring. But for you, and your company, trust us when we say that it’s better if we find out first. After all, that’s what we’re here for! And remember, if you’re not running a social security trace on your potential new hires, you could be missing out on crucial information that will keep your workplace environment safe and happy.
- Do you want to understand what is going on inside an employee’s head when they are involved in employee theft?
- How do you talk to your employees about employee theft?
These and many other issues are addressed in our new training seminar
“Keep your friends close, keep your employees closer”
We go in-depth into the world of employee theft and the employee.
LPSI can conduct this seminar live at your company, at our facility or live via a WebEx.
Contact us for more information.
The gold standard in the loss prevention world is the National Retail Security Survey (NRSS) by Dr. Richard C. Hollinger PhD at the University of Florida Department of Sociology, Criminology and Law. This study has been conducted for the last 20 plus years.
The 2011 sources of shrinkage break down as follows (note that the preliminary percentages do not total 100 percent):
• Employee Theft – 43.9%
• Shop Lifting – 35.7%
• Administrative Error – 12%
• Vendor Fraud – 5%
• Unknown – 5.5 %
Clearly our biggest exposure continues to be employee theft. Almost half of a retailer’s losses are caused by employees that steal from you.
When you combine employee theft and shoplifting, almost 80% of our losses are due to both internal and external theft.
As a retailer you cannot be passive about your anti-theft program, policies and procedures. You must be pro-active. Yes, cameras, Checkpoint systems and burglar alarm systems are critical. They are your base infrastructure. However, simply installing equipment, then patting yourself on the back because you feel the issues are solved, is a false sense of security.
Theft has to be addressed daily. It needs to be on your mind and your staff’s mind all the time. How do you react to a Checkpoint system alarm? Does your staff simply waive the customer on? How is your merchandise arranged? Are your high theft items in locations that can be monitored easily? Are you and your staff trained in loss prevention techniques?
You want to get some of that 80 percent back to your bottom line? Contact us today or call 1-770-426-0547!
