Workplace
Security: GeneralNever leave wallets or keys in your jacket or coat at work (unless you wear it ALL the time). Women should put their purses in a drawer and lock it. Other things can be easily removed from your desk, e.g., pens, cash, calculators, cameras, radios and computer equipment. When leaving your office, put anything that can be removed easily into a desk drawer and lock it. You can secure large equipment with locks.
Information is a company’s most important product. A simple phone call to a company asking for an employee and being told, for example, that he is out of the country for three weeks could open up that employee’s home for a burglary. All confidential information should be locked up, and employees should be taught how to keep information secure. A good friend of mine runs a highly successful competitive intelligence firm. On the one hand, he teaches companies how to prevent giving away any of their secrets to the competition. On the other hand, he helps companies acquire competitive information. No, he’s not doing anything unethical in any way. You would be shocked at how easy it is to obtain information about a company that would help a competitor. [But I won’t give you any clues!]
Bad Checks & Counterfeiting
Bad checks probably account for 10-15% of crime-related business losses. Follow your company’s procedures, insist on adequate ID before you cash a check and if there is any doubt in your mind, don’t cash it. Counterfeit money is another problem, and since the government will not reimburse a businessperson who accepts a counterfeit bill, you must exercise great care. The new bills in the U.S. have extra security precautions built into them. Learn about them and use them. The U.S. Treasury Dept. will be more than happy to help in this endeavor.
Shoplifting
This is a horrible problem, causing consumer prices to be increased 5-7% or more in some cases to offset the losses from shoplifting. Juveniles are the most common, followed by housewives. Nearly 60% of shoplifters are female!! Women tend to shoplift cosmetics, clothing and jewelry. Men take mostly alcohol and cigarettes. [I once caught a shoplifter who had placed about a dozen butane lighters in his pocket while I was grocery shopping. He did it right in front of me, probably assuming that no customer would stop him. I did…as he was checking out. He was furious, the lighters were retrieved from his pocket and the police came and took him away. Be involved.]
Shoplifters often look nervous and often work in teams with one distracting you while the other walks off with the goods. Lower shelves, so that people can see more of the store, are a huge help. Wider aisles and open spaces add to visibility and make shoplifting more difficult. Mirrors are good deterrents, as are security officers and floorwalkers. Technology, however, has helped prevent shoplifting. Most items now have bar code or radio frequency technology that will set off an alarm when you leave the store if that item has not been paid for. Avoid cameras that aren’t being monitored or are fakes. Lock your most expensive merchandise, and place high-ticket items far away from the front door.
Finally, when you hire someone, do a really good job of checking their background! Employee theft is THE greatest source of retail loss. It can be done in many ways and it is often difficult to ID the actual perpetrator. [Thirty-six years ago, I accepted a job managing a service station for a major oil company. It was a fun job, paid off all my student bills and I enjoyed it tremendously. Except for one small problem! We had one employee who was stealing money from us regularly. My assistant and I, sitting alone in the office after the station closed, doing the bookkeeping, knew to a penny how much was being taken, sometimes $50 or more in a day. We knew WHO the thief was. I was extremely well trained, but to this day I never have been able to figure out how he did it. Without proof, we couldn’t even fire him. Eventually he caused the station to close.] It pays to screen employees VERY carefully.
