Moving LP teams around

[capurato]

I have worked for two different managers in the time I have been with my current company. The area consists of ten department stores with an average of 5 LP in each store (not including unformed security). The current manager shuffled everyone around to new assignments. Stores that had seasoned LP teams are split up and every store has shuffled staffs.

I hate my new assignment. I felt we were forced into it and now we have to rebuild. For those in senior management, what is the benefit from switching everyone around? Is this a common LP practice?

[Curtis Baillie]

I used to do this. I would transfer strong and weaker LP managers and staff members to different stores to keep the strong performing staff members challenged and under performing employees the benefits of working with performing staff.

Every store is different, the store's management staff is different and even though it's the same company, each store offers different challenges, both physical and management. Accept the challenges and you will grow - it can only make you stronger and make you more promotable.

[Warren14]

In the corporate industry I have noticed that when a guard has been working on a site for too long he starts getting too friendly with the employees & if someone does steal something there is a bigger chance of him looking the other way.

[Nauticus]

It really does depend on the store and how the actual loss prevention is done.

If it is primarily CCTV-based surveillance, then typically there would be no tactical benefit of switching up LP teams. If, however, your LP teams typically do floor surveillance, then the more often and longer your staff are in the same store, the easier it is for others to become familiar with them and know who they are.

Additionally, loss prevention staff should always have a professional relationship with other members of the staff, but the longer a person works in the same store with the same people, the risk of a more personal relationship with staff members increases. Remember, that staff member or his or her friends could be acting dishonestly; alternatively, when you obtain information and you attempt to verify the credibility of the information, you may accept your friends' information without verifying the source. It happens often.

As others have said, if one team is doing a very good job and several other teams are not, then it is not benefiting the stores in that area. If, based on the loss prevention in place in three equal stores, one has a shrink of 0.3%, one has 0.6%, and yet another has 0.7%, the district is actually losing in the long run because although one store is doing well, two others are not.

To fix this, moving some good LP to the struggling store as well as pairing them up with LP staff who may require better training and a mentor may increase the collective skillset of the entire district loss prevention team and reduce shrink in more retail locations than just one.