Loss prevention and security audits in retail

When looking to design, implement, and track a loss prevention and security audit program across a national retail chain, there are two big questions to consider:

• What are you attempting to resolve, influence, and/or measure?
• What is the priority? 

The first point is to understand if there are any specific pressing concerns. If there are procedures not being followed by staff in the stores, then you want to come up with a program that is going to actually influence the way they work. Remember to not build your program(s) in a silo, work with your business partners.

Then, everyone is accountable for their budgets. That means you need to be able to define success, make an argument for it, and measure your results against that goal. Whether that’s reduced theft or making my stores safer for your employees and customers, we need to be able to measure that impact.

The second point is just as important. If everything is a priority, nothing is

The second point is just as important. If everything is a priority, nothing is. Too often loss prevention/asset protection (LP/AP) communication is cluttered with high- and low-priority points. Keep it simple, and try to resolve a couple key items. It’s also critical to stay aligned with your company's strategic plan. The mantra ‘inspect what you expect’ emphasizes that you can not assume just because an expectation was communicated that it is actually being/been done. Whether it’s security, operational, or health and safety violations, always follow-up and over communicate.

Finally, don’t forget about the communication post audit. It provides a strong perception of control and accountability. It also reminds everyone of the key points that you are looking for.

Remember that, although you want compliance, what you really need is commitment and buy-in for your strategic plan. If you strive for commitment, compliance will follow. 

Remote vs. in-person audits

Remote video monitoring allows businesses to conduct loss prevention audits from anywhere. This has a couple major benefits over traditional loss prevention audits:

• It’s cheaper because you don’t need to travel to a location to conduct the audit. 
• It’s faster, so you can audit more stores in a day and increase the frequency of your audits. This is helpful when you monitor 1000 locations and crucial when you watch over 10,000 stores.
• A modern video management system (VMS) connects the data from your POS (which is one of the highest risk locations for theft), provides motion and event search capabilities to give you access to needed video instantaneously, and provides case management software (CMS) as well.

However, asset protection professionals are being asked to do more with less these days

Of course, the in-person loss prevention and security audit for retail locations isn’t going away any time soon, and shouldn’t. Sometimes you just need to visit a place, if only to show the frontline workers that you genuinely care and are serious about theft and loss, and nothing can replace walking through a retail space with the on-site leader. However, asset protection professionals are being asked to do more with less these days. Remote loss prevention and security audits allow field workers and leaders to do just that. 

Things to look for when performing a loss prevention audit

Loss prevention audits can be divided into different issue areas. Here are pointers for every risk location in a retail space:

• Health and safety regulation issues
• POS issues
• Operation issues

Health and safety regulation issues

A goal of audits is to reduce the costs to the store. Sometimes that’s reducing theft percentage, but often it is reducing potential liability, whether it's health and safety fines, workers’ compensation liability, or slip-and-fall injuries. Here’s what you want to see:

• Are there regulatory concerns, such as blocked fire exits, blocked electrical panels, or improper cardboard compactor use?
• Are there wet floor signs out when it's raining?

POS issues

The point of sale (POS) is where most theft occurs. That’s why Solink dedicates an entire section of their complimentary loss prevention and security audits to the POS. Here’s are some things that your want to look at:

• What’s actually happening during high-risk transactions (no sale till opens, cash refunds, manager discounts, high discount (either percentage or dollar value), etc.)?
• Are employees intentionally (theft issue) or unintentionally (retraining issue) abusing their discounts?
• Are transaction times too long (retraining issue)?
• If a manager's approval is required, is the manager reviewing the transaction prior to approval?

Operation issues

Operation issues fall into several categories, but they can show up as issues with training, security, and theft. Here’s what you should look out for:

• Are employees engaging customers when they enter and frequently thereafter (training issue)?
• Are safes being properly secured and cash handling procedures followed?
• Are direct store delivery (DSD) vendor check-in methods being followed (a key point of contact for shrink)?
• Is trash being removed regularly and through the proper door?
• Are back doors being left open and/or unsecured?

Lessons learned from performing loss prevention audits

Top lessons learned from performing thousands of loss prevention audits - Audits can have a large impact when you are asking the right questions.

They can lead you to discover the common denominators that are driving failing results, which then provide you with the opportunity to make changes. Finally, while you should be looking for issues, audits can also be used for positive feedback and still send a powerful message.