Like so many of you, here at the magazine we have been working overtime due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Early into this crisis, we felt like we owed it to our readers to provide relevant, curated information that would be valuable to loss prevention professionals. Given the massive amount of information generated from across the globe, we didn’t want to add to the noise, but rather provide a resource that asset protection organizations could trust.
To that end, we created a COVID Information Center on our website to have one place where you can go for the latest information from our writers, other retail industry organizations and associations, webinars, and podcasts. The COVID page is found here.
Webinars
We also initiated a COVID-related webinar series with speakers from our industry discussing various challenges and solutions that they have encountered, as well as looking at various aspects of store reopening and what to expect in retail’s so-called “new normal.” Following is a short description of some of these webinars that were presented live in April and May but remain available on-demand on our webinar page here.
We started this series when many retailers were closing stores and either laying off or furloughing employees. We assembled a panel of well-known LP career coaches—Gene Smith, LPC, Jacque Brittain, LPC, and Chris O’Leary—to offer their insights on managing this disruption in a webinar titled “How to Handle Layoffs and Furloughs Due to COVID-19.”
As talk began of reopening stores, we asked well-known Ed Minyard, who has extensive experience in disaster preparedness and business recovery related to hurricanes, earthquakes, and previous pandemics, to talk about precautions and strategies for reopening facilities after prolonged closure in “How to Prep Your Business to Recover from COVID-19.”
The pandemic has also disrupted retail’s supply chain in enormous ways as those stores operating have struggled to maintain inventories of essential goods while looking for creative ways to find legitimate sources for personal protection equipment and other critical items. Byron Smith, CFI, LPC, Glenn Master, and Jason Rowland—all supply chain experts associated with the International Supply Chain Protection Organization—discussed “Supply Chain Challenges and Solutions in the Pandemic.”
One of the most-watched webinars titled “Preparing for an ORC Epidemic Post COVID-19” provided so much valuable information that we turned the information into a feature article our May-June print edition found here. The panel included individuals from retail, eBay, the National Association for Shoplifting Prevention, law enforcement, and the Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail.
Other webinars on the schedule at the time of this writing include:
- Rob LaCommare, vice president of AP and safety for Big Lots, offering “Lessons Learned from Retail’s Front Lines”
- Jason Jackson, Chief Security Officer for Bass Pro Group, with Keith Aubele of Nav1gate Group and Grant Cowan of Salient, discussing “Leadership Steps to Returning to Retail’s New Normal”
- Greg Mummah, director of the Everbridge Center of Excellence, offering recommendations from his crisis communication and management companies for “Five Key Tasks for Reopening Safely and Managing Risk”
By the time the May-June print magazine is in your hands, many more webinars will likely be archived on our website for readers to watch and learn.
Podcasts
If you prefer to listen to audio rather than sit in front of your computer watching a webinar, we have provided audio versions of the webinars in our podcast library here.
You may also find our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Please subscribe to our podcasts and leave reviews on your favorite platform and give us your feedback or suggestions at podcast@LPportal.com.
In the meantime, stay safe, protect your family, and best of luck as we all work toward reigniting our economy and getting back to some semblance of normalcy.