Having worked in several high theft/ high inventory shrink stores I have seen a direct correlation between these heavy loss stores and extremely low employee morale. The two go hand in hand for a number of reasons. While it may be difficult to determine if the store suffers high shrink because of the low employee morale, or if the employee morale has suffered due to the high shrink, the end result is that by finding ways to increase morale, the shrink losses start to reduce themselves.
Building up employee relations starts with bridging the gap between management and with the non-management employees. This doesn’t mean that managers need to become pushovers. This means that management needs to begin to communicate with the store employees more. By sharing daily events like sales goals and results, when and how inventory losses are occurring, and merchandising strategies, employees start to feel like they are a part of a larger team. They also start to exhibit a deeper sense of ownership in their store, as they are no longer left out of the information sharing process.
Another vital role in bridging the gap is to increase the loss prevention training available to your employees. Shrink losses are not only caused by shoplifting, damages and store use also play a role. Make sure your employees are well aware of the line between which merchandise can be used within the store (cleaning products?) and when using merchandise in a store constituents employee theft (beverages and snacks at a cash wrap?).
In house training and computer based learning programs are effective to a certain extent. They provide basic training information and can be done quickly, or in a segmented fashion due to time constraints. Another option, however, is to sign up the entire store for loss prevention seminars. This will serve two distinct purposes.
The first is to get better information, as in information from an actual loss prevention expert. Seminars like these are conducted by people who have been in their field for years, have seen a multitude of situations, and have made a career specifically in the loss prevention field.
Secondly, having an opportunity for your store employees to see each other in a different setting, a new atmosphere can help breathe life into the dwindling employee morale. Using this training session helps your employees work together is a different setting while learning vital information. Employees have a chance to ask their own questions to an outside moderator without the same fear of judgment from a store manager.
After the seminar, employees have a better chance of using their newly discovered skills and information to make a positive change in their store. They should be able to see how, as a store team, everyone can play a vital role. As time goes on, employee morale will increase as they start to see the wins – a reduction in shoplifters and inventory losses. Or perhaps it will be a reduction in shrink losses because of the employee’s lift in morale from their team-building day at the loss prevention seminars.
For more information on Loss Prevention Seminars, Loss Prevention Training, or Loss Prevention Workshop contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia
Visit the Loss Prevention Systems website for more information on Retail Employee Theft and Retail Shoplifting problems and view the Retail Loss Prevention Seminars, Retail Loss Prevention Training and Retail Loss Prevention Workshop we offer to help with your Employee Theft and Shoplifting problems.