Employee Background Checks-4 WC Blog 629
Pre-Employment Screening-3
Getting An Education On Employee Background Checks
Employee background checks are important, but depending on what the job is they can take a LONG time to complete. Currently my eldest son is applying for a teaching job in a high school and although he had a background check done to enter the teaching program at the college he attended, he has to undergo another check. He has received a tentative job offer but until the check clears he cannot officially be given an offer of employment. As a father this is frustrating, I want to see him get the job he has his heart set on. While I know he will pass with flying colors the waiting is hard.
I have to tell you though I can appreciate the thoroughness that the pre-employment screening company must be using. My son and the other teachers are working with children and parents want to be confident that their children are safe around the adults to whose care they are entrusted. A quick web search for news of teacher arrests finds a disconcerting number of stories of teachers accused of suspected drug use in a classroom or sexual misconduct with students or other abuses of children. It should make us grateful that school districts conduct pre-employment screening, it is just unfortunate that bad apples fall through the cracks. I would like to ask retail business owners out there, do you know who YOU are hiring? Have you ever thought about who your store serves and who the people are that represent your business as they wait on your customers? If you do not have a company conducting employee background checks for you then you are risking the well-being of your clients and even other employees.
Do you know if you have an employee with a criminal history for assault and battery working for your company? Maybe you have a company delivery vehicle and employees have to take purchases to customers. Do any of those workers that get behind the wheel for you have a history of Driving Under the Influence? What do you really know about the people working in your building? A reputable company that conducts pre-employment screening can get the information that matters to you and the stores you run. You may not know what you should know about the staff you hire. A company that has been in retail loss prevention consulting for nearly three decades can provide sound recommendations on what a store owner should be concerned with in hiring. They can also conduct the employee background checks for businesses making it a convenient one-stop shop location. Loss Prevention Systems Inc. is just such a company. As a former Loss Prevention Manager with almost 27 years of retail experience they would be MY go to choice for advice and to conduct background checks for my potential new hires.
You could be reading this and thinking that there is a big difference between hiring school teachers who are working with children day after day and a retail store that simply sells merchandise. I agree there is a difference but let me give you a little insight into some of the situations I have dealt with that involved employees. As a Loss Prevention Manager I have responded to the store in the middle of the night for two employees who were fighting with each other. I have sat in on an employee being fired who threatened to kill himself. I have had employees who were terminated from their positions who threatened to “get” a store manager outside of the store. I have been involved with a case where an employee claimed she was raped by a delivery driver in his delivery truck. Our store hired one person with whom I was familiar because I had caught her stealing from a store where we previously worked together. I have dealt with numerous employee theft cases involving cash, customer credit cards, gift cards and merchandise. I have investigated employees filing false accident claims, trying to get compensation from the store. I am familiar with cases in other stores of employees accused of voyeurism of patrons in restrooms and fitting rooms.
The list goes on and I can only say no, you aren’t hiring school teachers but you are responsible for the people who work for you and count on you to make sound hiring decisions. The safety of your staff and customers IS something you must give consideration to when deciding who will be on your team. Hire a company that can do complete employee background checks on potential job candidates and know that it is an investment in operating a safe and secure store. That leads to a happier more productive team and can only mean good things for you.
Need information on employee background checks? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Employee background checks are important, but depending on what the job is they can take a LONG time to complete. Currently my eldest son is applying for a teaching job in a high school and although he had a background check done to enter the teaching program at the college he attended, he has to undergo another check. He has received a tentative job offer but until the check clears he cannot officially be given an offer of employment. As a father this is frustrating, I want to see him get the job he has his heart set on. While I know he will pass with flying colors the waiting is hard.
I have to tell you though I can appreciate the thoroughness that the pre-employment screening company must be using. My son and the other teachers are working with children and parents want to be confident that their children are safe around the adults to whose care they are entrusted. A quick web search for news of teacher arrests finds a disconcerting number of stories of teachers accused of suspected drug use in a classroom or sexual misconduct with students or other abuses of children. It should make us grateful that school districts conduct pre-employment screening, it is just unfortunate that bad apples fall through the cracks. I would like to ask retail business owners out there, do you know who YOU are hiring? Have you ever thought about who your store serves and who the people are that represent your business as they wait on your customers? If you do not have a company conducting employee background checks for you then you are risking the well-being of your clients and even other employees.
Do you know if you have an employee with a criminal history for assault and battery working for your company? Maybe you have a company delivery vehicle and employees have to take purchases to customers. Do any of those workers that get behind the wheel for you have a history of Driving Under the Influence? What do you really know about the people working in your building? A reputable company that conducts pre-employment screening can get the information that matters to you and the stores you run. You may not know what you should know about the staff you hire. A company that has been in retail loss prevention consulting for nearly three decades can provide sound recommendations on what a store owner should be concerned with in hiring. They can also conduct the employee background checks for businesses making it a convenient one-stop shop location. Loss Prevention Systems Inc. is just such a company. As a former Loss Prevention Manager with almost 27 years of retail experience they would be MY go to choice for advice and to conduct background checks for my potential new hires.
You could be reading this and thinking that there is a big difference between hiring school teachers who are working with children day after day and a retail store that simply sells merchandise. I agree there is a difference but let me give you a little insight into some of the situations I have dealt with that involved employees. As a Loss Prevention Manager I have responded to the store in the middle of the night for two employees who were fighting with each other. I have sat in on an employee being fired who threatened to kill himself. I have had employees who were terminated from their positions who threatened to “get” a store manager outside of the store. I have been involved with a case where an employee claimed she was raped by a delivery driver in his delivery truck. Our store hired one person with whom I was familiar because I had caught her stealing from a store where we previously worked together. I have dealt with numerous employee theft cases involving cash, customer credit cards, gift cards and merchandise. I have investigated employees filing false accident claims, trying to get compensation from the store. I am familiar with cases in other stores of employees accused of voyeurism of patrons in restrooms and fitting rooms.
The list goes on and I can only say no, you aren’t hiring school teachers but you are responsible for the people who work for you and count on you to make sound hiring decisions. The safety of your staff and customers IS something you must give consideration to when deciding who will be on your team. Hire a company that can do complete employee background checks on potential job candidates and know that it is an investment in operating a safe and secure store. That leads to a happier more productive team and can only mean good things for you.
Need information on employee background checks? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Retail Traffic Counting System – 3 WC Blog 684
Door Counting Sensor-3
Visual Merchandising Enhanced With A Door Counting Sensor Part 2
In Part 1 I talked about how a door counting sensor can help retailer owners gain more data to determine the impact of new displays on increasing customer foot traffic. We looked at suggestions for how stores can make visual displays can be complimentary and market more than just a singular item. An article I referenced suggested having a bed display but adding throw pillows to the bed and bedding to help with suggestive selling. The conversation started because of a trip I made to a favorite grocery store of mine. Your Point of Sale system will give you the total number of transactions at the end of the day and you can research the number of sku’s sold that you have on display. My concern is whether your data will actually tell you if your displays worked. Did you bring in new customers or only appeal to the people who already shop in your store. I don’t want merchants to ever be comfortable with the status quo. You have to seek out new clients and give shoppers a reason to return to your store. Advertising and merchandising will draw them in, customer service, value and a welcoming environment will keep them returning.
Guessing that numbers are improving by looking at sales transactions is not going to provide business owners with the best data about foot traffic. That is best done with a retail traffic counting system from Sensormatic. Stores with electronic article surveillance towers from Sensormatic may already have a compatible system that can be readily upgraded with the equipment. Retailers not enjoying the benefits of a Sensormatic security system can contact Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. to learn more about all of the advantages a door counting sensor and a retail anti-theft system can provide. As a leader in Loss Prevention consulting and theft reduction since 1983, the team at Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. is led by CEO Bill Bregar. Bill brings to the table experience as a U.S. Army Military Intelligence Officer, a B.S. degree in Private Security Administration and Management and he has been a Regional and National Loss Prevention Director. In my own right I have 17 years of Loss Prevention and Loss Prevention Management experience and 28 years of retail experience in total. We both recommend a Sensormatic security system and the integrated retail traffic counting system to reduce theft and to improve sales.
Without knowing how many people have walked into your store you have no way to measure how many people did not buy anything when they visited. Your sales transactions only reflect the number of purchases made but you cannot interpret that into actual visitors. IF on the other hand you have the door counting sensor you can sort the numbers and get a better picture of how many customers are entering your store and of those how many are making purchases. It may take some time to get a baseline of your store activity but once you know that, you can begin to add into the equation the sales of sku’s you have put on display and see what the impact of that display had on purchases.
I would be remiss as a Loss Prevention Manager if I failed to tell you that your increased traffic may bring in more shoplifters. It is just a fact in retail that there is going to be a criminal element that is going to go to where they can get their hands on merchandise. You can deter a major portion of this theft activity if you have Sensormatic security in your building. Shoplifters generally are not looking for risk. They may look for excitement in stealing but risking being caught is not part of their agenda. When a crook walks into a store and sees there are electronic article surveillance towers at the doors they get antsy. If they don’t turn around and leave they begin looking to see how much merchandise is protected. Are just a few items tagged or does it look like everything has an EAS tag or label? The more aggressive the tagging the more likely they are to leave. They will find somewhere else to go that does not take merchandise protection so seriously.
Grow sales with great visual merchandising and advertising. Appeal to what people desire and not just what they need. Cross merchandise and pull them into your store. Track your headcounts with a retail traffic counting system. Finally keep merchandise in stock for those new customers with a Sesnsormatic security system. Don’t settle for the status quo, grow your business by growing your foot traffic!
Need information on a door counting sensor? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
In Part 1 I talked about how a door counting sensor can help retailer owners gain more data to determine the impact of new displays on increasing customer foot traffic. We looked at suggestions for how stores can make visual displays can be complimentary and market more than just a singular item. An article I referenced suggested having a bed display but adding throw pillows to the bed and bedding to help with suggestive selling. The conversation started because of a trip I made to a favorite grocery store of mine. Your Point of Sale system will give you the total number of transactions at the end of the day and you can research the number of sku’s sold that you have on display. My concern is whether your data will actually tell you if your displays worked. Did you bring in new customers or only appeal to the people who already shop in your store. I don’t want merchants to ever be comfortable with the status quo. You have to seek out new clients and give shoppers a reason to return to your store. Advertising and merchandising will draw them in, customer service, value and a welcoming environment will keep them returning.
Guessing that numbers are improving by looking at sales transactions is not going to provide business owners with the best data about foot traffic. That is best done with a retail traffic counting system from Sensormatic. Stores with electronic article surveillance towers from Sensormatic may already have a compatible system that can be readily upgraded with the equipment. Retailers not enjoying the benefits of a Sensormatic security system can contact Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. to learn more about all of the advantages a door counting sensor and a retail anti-theft system can provide. As a leader in Loss Prevention consulting and theft reduction since 1983, the team at Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. is led by CEO Bill Bregar. Bill brings to the table experience as a U.S. Army Military Intelligence Officer, a B.S. degree in Private Security Administration and Management and he has been a Regional and National Loss Prevention Director. In my own right I have 17 years of Loss Prevention and Loss Prevention Management experience and 28 years of retail experience in total. We both recommend a Sensormatic security system and the integrated retail traffic counting system to reduce theft and to improve sales.
Without knowing how many people have walked into your store you have no way to measure how many people did not buy anything when they visited. Your sales transactions only reflect the number of purchases made but you cannot interpret that into actual visitors. IF on the other hand you have the door counting sensor you can sort the numbers and get a better picture of how many customers are entering your store and of those how many are making purchases. It may take some time to get a baseline of your store activity but once you know that, you can begin to add into the equation the sales of sku’s you have put on display and see what the impact of that display had on purchases.
I would be remiss as a Loss Prevention Manager if I failed to tell you that your increased traffic may bring in more shoplifters. It is just a fact in retail that there is going to be a criminal element that is going to go to where they can get their hands on merchandise. You can deter a major portion of this theft activity if you have Sensormatic security in your building. Shoplifters generally are not looking for risk. They may look for excitement in stealing but risking being caught is not part of their agenda. When a crook walks into a store and sees there are electronic article surveillance towers at the doors they get antsy. If they don’t turn around and leave they begin looking to see how much merchandise is protected. Are just a few items tagged or does it look like everything has an EAS tag or label? The more aggressive the tagging the more likely they are to leave. They will find somewhere else to go that does not take merchandise protection so seriously.
Grow sales with great visual merchandising and advertising. Appeal to what people desire and not just what they need. Cross merchandise and pull them into your store. Track your headcounts with a retail traffic counting system. Finally keep merchandise in stock for those new customers with a Sesnsormatic security system. Don’t settle for the status quo, grow your business by growing your foot traffic!
Need information on a door counting sensor? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Sensormatic Systems-3 WC Blog 663
Stop Shoplifting-3
Stop Shoplifting AND Operational Shortages Part 3
In part 1 I discussed the way Sensormatic systems can assist store owners in reducing operational shortage. We have also looked at how they can curb or reduce vendor related merchandise shrinkage. As we finish out this series I want to discuss a few other operational issues that contribute to shortage. It is important to remember that operational shortage is a separate concern from efforts to stop shoplifting and internal theft. These are errors and mistakes in processing and handling merchandise that can be just as costly as theft but may not get the same level of attention as theft does. The reason for this series is that in the past week I have encountered each situation. I have also had to deal with the resulting customer service issues brought about by each problem.
This past week I was assisting a customer in finding tabbed dividers for his child who was preparing for school. The customer found a package he wanted and as he started to place it in his shopping cart I noted that the packaging looked a bit unusual. I asked if I could look at it more closely and he permitted me to do so. It turned out it was a multi-pack of the dividers still in the clear, shipping cellophane wrap. There were approximately 8-10 individual packs still wrapped and could have been unintentionally rung up as a single unit if I had not caught it. In other words rather than selling 8 or 10 packages at roughly $3.00 each (a total of $24-$30) we could have theoretically sold all 8 or 10 units for $3.00. That would have been bad enough. To make matters worse, there were about 10 such packages that had not been properly processed when the merchandise was stocked. Assuming there were 10 units in a package multiplied by 10 packages, the shortage could have been almost $270! Some people are thinking that this would not have happened and the error would have been caught quickly before all of the packages could have been sold. That is not necessarily so. There are people who look for stocking errors and purposely take advantage of them. My customer was not entirely happy about the catch I made but he said he understood. No, it is not the same as trying to stop shoplifting but not addressing these problems can be just as costly if not more so.
Since we are on the topic of operational issues that cannot be prevented by a Sensormatic system let’s discuss compactor security. Does your store have a compactor? If not, how about an outside dumpster? Who is responsible for tossing trash in your business? Do employees throw out their own boxes, packaging, etc.? Does your store keep a lock on the compactor if you have one? If it is locked, do you limit who throws away the garbage and does anyone inspect what is being tossed? As a former Loss Prevention Manager I was actively involved in the operational integrity of the store. I ensured our managers were in compliance with company policies regarding compactor security because the risk of shortage due to carelessness was that great. I would conduct audits of boxes and trash that were waiting to be tossed and I would find merchandise that was overlooked during the freight flow process. There were times I would find merchandise that was to be thrown out for vendor credits and some items had not been processed through reverse logistics. I was reminded of this source of shortage when my daughter, an area manager for another retailer was telling me how an employee had left several boxes of shoes in a box by their compactor waiting for a manager to throw it out. Had she not been careful about what she was throwing in they would have incurred shortage in shoes. It also would have made the store short of that shoe size and affected potential sales had a customer wanted them and they weren’t available. Managers don’t need to stop shoplifting in order to save shortage from happening.
A Sensormatic system can make a huge difference in shortage for store owners willing to invest in them. They are a serious deterrent to shoplifters and dishonest employees and they will identify attempted efforts to steal. They can also curb some operational shortage, though not all of it. That is why it is important to contact Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. for a consultation on how to prevent theft, fraud and shortage for a thorough review of your shrink risks. You will be surprised at how much you can save by spending on Loss Prevention.
Sensormatic systems are important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
In part 1 I discussed the way Sensormatic systems can assist store owners in reducing operational shortage. We have also looked at how they can curb or reduce vendor related merchandise shrinkage. As we finish out this series I want to discuss a few other operational issues that contribute to shortage. It is important to remember that operational shortage is a separate concern from efforts to stop shoplifting and internal theft. These are errors and mistakes in processing and handling merchandise that can be just as costly as theft but may not get the same level of attention as theft does. The reason for this series is that in the past week I have encountered each situation. I have also had to deal with the resulting customer service issues brought about by each problem.
This past week I was assisting a customer in finding tabbed dividers for his child who was preparing for school. The customer found a package he wanted and as he started to place it in his shopping cart I noted that the packaging looked a bit unusual. I asked if I could look at it more closely and he permitted me to do so. It turned out it was a multi-pack of the dividers still in the clear, shipping cellophane wrap. There were approximately 8-10 individual packs still wrapped and could have been unintentionally rung up as a single unit if I had not caught it. In other words rather than selling 8 or 10 packages at roughly $3.00 each (a total of $24-$30) we could have theoretically sold all 8 or 10 units for $3.00. That would have been bad enough. To make matters worse, there were about 10 such packages that had not been properly processed when the merchandise was stocked. Assuming there were 10 units in a package multiplied by 10 packages, the shortage could have been almost $270! Some people are thinking that this would not have happened and the error would have been caught quickly before all of the packages could have been sold. That is not necessarily so. There are people who look for stocking errors and purposely take advantage of them. My customer was not entirely happy about the catch I made but he said he understood. No, it is not the same as trying to stop shoplifting but not addressing these problems can be just as costly if not more so.
Since we are on the topic of operational issues that cannot be prevented by a Sensormatic system let’s discuss compactor security. Does your store have a compactor? If not, how about an outside dumpster? Who is responsible for tossing trash in your business? Do employees throw out their own boxes, packaging, etc.? Does your store keep a lock on the compactor if you have one? If it is locked, do you limit who throws away the garbage and does anyone inspect what is being tossed? As a former Loss Prevention Manager I was actively involved in the operational integrity of the store. I ensured our managers were in compliance with company policies regarding compactor security because the risk of shortage due to carelessness was that great. I would conduct audits of boxes and trash that were waiting to be tossed and I would find merchandise that was overlooked during the freight flow process. There were times I would find merchandise that was to be thrown out for vendor credits and some items had not been processed through reverse logistics. I was reminded of this source of shortage when my daughter, an area manager for another retailer was telling me how an employee had left several boxes of shoes in a box by their compactor waiting for a manager to throw it out. Had she not been careful about what she was throwing in they would have incurred shortage in shoes. It also would have made the store short of that shoe size and affected potential sales had a customer wanted them and they weren’t available. Managers don’t need to stop shoplifting in order to save shortage from happening.
A Sensormatic system can make a huge difference in shortage for store owners willing to invest in them. They are a serious deterrent to shoplifters and dishonest employees and they will identify attempted efforts to steal. They can also curb some operational shortage, though not all of it. That is why it is important to contact Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. for a consultation on how to prevent theft, fraud and shortage for a thorough review of your shrink risks. You will be surprised at how much you can save by spending on Loss Prevention.
Sensormatic systems are important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
