In an attempt to focus our loss control efforts on high-priority risk areas while keeping our program simple, we have organized these efforts into four main areas—Awareness, Auditing, Apprehension, and Area focus. Subordi- nate leaders will be issued checklist/activity forms to help keep themselves and their employees on track throughout the fiscal year.
AWARENESS
Employee awareness and training is the single most important issue in deal- ing with reducing theft and waste in any business. Our ongoing program will show all employees what the problems are, how these problems affect them, and what they can do to reduce these problems. Apathy, changing priorities, and high-employee turnover are realities in any retail setting. Our three- tiered program keeps these facts in mind; it consists of employee workshop packages, awareness bulletin boards, and an incentive award program.
A seminar series for our store employees has been put together and con- sists of three topics—shoplifting/external theft, employee theft, and safety.
Each topic is a separate workshop. The seminar can be given by any manager, assistant manager, or loss prevention specialist and should consist of the custom video and facilitator's guide that shows, step-by-step, how to present the program. Also included are workbooks and handouts. Each workshop can be presented in less than an hour to allow for maximum floor coverage at all times. These workshops can be part of new employee orienta- tion, can be given to a group of employees as reinforcement training, or can be presented according to the manager's wishes.
Each store is provided with a loss prevention awareness bulletin board that is posted either in the employee lounge or central meeting area. The board serves as a constant reminder to employees and is an important part of the program. Three topic updates can be posted on the board monthly—
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theft prevention techniques, safety techniques, and congratulation notices to employees who prevented a loss or potential accident the previous month.
To reinforce positive loss prevention actions on the part of our employees, the third part of our program consists of incentive awards. All employees are taught to acknowledge all customers, make add-on sales through subtle suggestive selling techniques, and verify questionable prices.
These activities not only increase sales and customer satisfaction, but are proven theft deterrents. When an employe deters an incident, recovers mer- chandise, or provides information that results in an apprehension, a request for bonus points can be submitted. A "check" for 50-100 bonus points will be issued to that employee. Employees save their points to purchase mer- chandise from a catalog. With this program, awareness remains a priority with employees.
We will also provide a toll free, 24-hour hotline for employees to report suspicious incidents anonymously or to suggest ways we can improve our security efforts.
AUDITING
After employee awareness, the second most critical issue in reducing loss is to establish controls on money and merchandise. For the purpose of this plan, we have included the establishment and verification of compliance to loss controls in one section.
We studied procedural controls, used by different retailers, that apply to all aspects of store operations. From these studies, we selected those controls that not only prove most effective, but that fit in our hassle-free customer ser- vice atmosphere. All procedures were thoroughly researched, tested, and documented. Employees and supervisors who will practice these procedures will be taught the reasons for these controls and allowed to practice them before going back to the sales floor.
Controls can be internal or external and can be designed to protect either cash or merchandise. In addition to procedural controls, we will also em- phasize external controls such as high-quality locks, safes, burglar alarms, glass film, CCTV, and EAS. Our EAS system has been invaluable in reducing the bottom line shrinkage figures in EAS stores. If properly used, EAS can be very effective and presents a positive return on investment. More pre- tagged high-loss items will be requested from the vendor to reduce store labor requirements for this effort.
Once controls are implemented and adjusted to fit in the real-world work flow of daily business, they must be continually tested and reinforced. The best controls in the world are useless if employees don't practice them on a consistent basis (as is very often the case).
Procedures that control voids, refunds, and cash register access are ab- solutely essential. Our Store Inspection Report is similar to an audit that our
Sample Protection Program 153 loss prevention managers perform with store managers twice annually. The report is used as a positive management tool.
Managers set the mood, as well as the priorities, in their stores. If employees perceive that management doesn't emphasize or enforce pro- cedure compliance, the morale and theft activity reflects this mood. The in- spection report will indicate specific problems to the store and district managers, so that a concentrated effort can be made to reduce them.
APPREHENSION
If a customer or employee steals cash or merchandise from your store, what, if any, action should be taken? A lot of research and deliberation went into our decision to combine criminal and civil action against the majority of ap- prehended shoplifters and dishonest employees. We felt that arrest and pro- secution still provide a degree of deterrence for certain categories of of- fenders, since "the word" still travels in schools and some neighborhoods. If Store A has EAS, highly trained, effective store agents and/or employees; and prosecutes perpetrators, a thief will most likely steal from Store B.
Civil action against dishonest employees and shoplifters has been made relatively easy with the advent of civil demand laws that exist in at least 44 states. Civil demand has not only proven itself effective in our stores as a deterrent to repeat offenders, but is a deterrent to juvenile theft as well.
Parents tend to keep a closer eye on their children when their theft acts begin to impact the household budget.
When dishonest employees or shoplifters are taken into custody for com- miting a crime, they are deterred from theft activity for as long as they are detained. Other potential criminals who hear of the situation may think twice about committing a similar crime in that establishment. The detention also may result in a recovery of assets.
A third benefit of apprehension is the opportunity to interview the suspect. Interviews often provide the retailer with valuable intelligence. In- formation collected from these sources can reveal break-downs in controls or morale, implicate others involved in criminal activity, and can provide in- sight into methods and motives of shoplifters and dishonest employees. For these reasons, we will not be discouraged from pursuing the apprehension of offenders.
AREA
All merchants have high-loss stores and high-loss departments. Our com- prehensive exception report tells us, on one page, which stores, employees, or merchandise areas are experiencing the majority of the problems in voids, refunds, price variances, cash overages and shortages, bad checks, and
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shrinkage percentage. We will combine these data with a trend analysis report that indicates type of incident, high-loss time, and high-loss location to allow our loss prevention resources to be quickly and efficiently applied.