Safety

As a business risk, it’s probably hard for a retailer to think it makes sense to embark on a major pandemic planning initiative given perceived more pressing business issues. Still, security leaders shouldn’t let a lack of attention prevent an annual program review of its readiness. But what might such LP department preparations include?

LPM interviewed more than one dozen retail security consultants, industry leaders, and LP executives and asked what they think about different security tools and strategies to prevent after-hours store break-ins. Their responses focused on 7 tactics retailers should consider.

Retailers are often faced with protests by striking workers or picketing consumers that can lead to potentially damaging publicity. An analysis of security mistakes by retailers provides a number of useful ideas for both corporate and store-level employees for mitigating damaging fallout from protests.

The Security Executive Council, which tracks trends among security practitioners, has identified seven issues that have challenged security leaders over the last 12 months.   ...

“When companies have been proactive in security, that is not a case I want to have. I want the path of least resistance.” For him, that means inaction by a company that will indicate to a jury that it disregarded people’s safety. These are the companies that lose security lawsuits.

A job termination is an especially delicate task—one that should follow a specific security game plan every time it happens.

For those charged with protecting company assets, a couple of recent news items raised red flags about dishonest insiders. Multiple studies underscore the risk from dishonest insiders and found that an important security tactic—the “two-person rule”—isn’t always enough. The research also provide insights into how employees rationalize dishonest behavior.

From 2011 to 2017, 614 workers lost their lives in forklift-related incidents and more than 7,000 nonfatal injuries with days away from work occurred every year. Safety leaders have learned through investigations that accidents often occur even when forklift drivers do everything right.

Jay Mealing is the typical Walmart Cinderella story. He started in the Garden Center as an hourly associate in 1990 at a store in Columbia, South Carolina. Almost 30 years later, he is senior director of global security for Walmart International. Not bad for a country boy from South Carolina. Read his story.

Mindless though most Internet chatter is, paying attention to what is being said online has become critical for retailers today—to protect brands, avert threats, respond to crisis, and improve store operations. Most recently—and dramatically—the imperative was underscored when multiple active shooter plots against retailers were averted after threatening online posts came to light.