Are New Zealand employers aware of the level of risk involved with the security of their business?  Having worked in retail for a number of years both here and abroad I have witnessed first hand some serious breaches in security.

In London, especially in shopping areas like Oxford Street and Covent Garden it was easy for a thief to wait for staff to be distracted, walk into a store with a concealed black plastic rubbish bag, fill it to the brim, walk out the door and be lost in the crowd.  Fortunately here in NZ the crowds aren’t as dense and the majority of our busy stores are situated in malls monitored by security staff.  However, it easy for staff, especially new or untrained staff, to be distracted by being busy or worse, a thief’s associate asking typically bizarre questions either in person or more often than not by phone call.  

All employers and staff should take into account that security of the store includes taking note of the nature of all inbound phone calls.
I can recall two such phone calls which led to the recovery of thousands of dollars worth of stock.  The first phone call went something like this:

“Hi.  I’m calling from Tonga.  I have a bag of your stock.”  

Coincidently, the store happened to be missing a bag of stock from Tauranga that morning so the conversation continued;

“Oh, great, yes we’re missing a bag of stock this morning.  Whereabouts in Tauranga are you?”

“No.  No.  Not Tauranga.  Tonga.  I’m calling from Tonga and they are selling your clothes here.  $25 for a jacket.  $15 for a skirt”

The sales assistant passed the information onto their Head Office who informed the police and consequently a container filled with thousands of dollars worth of stock from stores all over NZ was found at the local port bound for the Pacific Islands.

The second phone call was from what appeared to be a confused customer.  Luckily the manager overheard the conversation and quickly realized what was going on.

“Hi.  I was just wondering whereabouts your warehouse shop is?”  Not the one at DressSmart but you knows the one that sells cheap clothes”.

The sales assistant knowing they didn’t have a warehouse locally answered;  

“No sorry we don’t have a warehouse you must have us confused with someone else.”

The manager then took the phone and asked the customer if they’d heard about the warehouse from a friend, whereabouts they thought it was and their name.  After receiving the relevant information they were able to pass it on to police who were already pinpointing the exact location of the so-called warehouse.  Again police found thousands of dollars worth of stock which in some cases still had the security tags attached to the garments.

These are just two instances I know about but I’m sure there are many others.  If your staff are not already aware, professional thieves do operate in New Zealand.  Sadly, as many employers are aware, some of them turn out to be the staff themselves.  An unfortunate statistic in New Zealand is the increase of staff theft.  The obvious solution to this is to not hire a thief in the first place.  A simple checklist of the following will help to eliminate any potential employment problems:

• all applications are accompanied by an up to date CV
• check for gaps in employment history (very few people like to add their prison term to their list of achievements)
• check the applicants reasons for leaving previous jobs
• check verbal references (ask who they reported to at their last role and if they haven’t listed them as a reference, enquire as to why)
• undertake a police check (especially if the role involves banking or a financial component)

At Ragtrade we can save you the time and effort and do all of this for you, while providing a 3 month guarantee.  We can provide reference checks and professional screening to ensure that you are receiving quality candidates for your personal selection.