Organization and control of the internal facility regime, as one of the main elements of preventing theft by personnel of a trading enterprise.
Building an effective security system for a retail enterprise is impossible without organizing a pass and internal facility regime, which are mandatory elements of the system for preventing and minimizing losses at a retail enterprise. In this article, I would like to focus on the internal facility regime as a system for building preventive measures aimed, first of all, at minimizing the possibility of theft by the personnel of a retail enterprise. I would like to make a reservation that this system is unlikely to 100% eliminate the possibility of theft by employees of hypermarkets and shopping centers. The methods of committing theft by personnel are constantly being improved. Therefore, we will also talk about other areas of control aimed at eliminating the possibility of theft, which cannot be prevented by organizing the internal facility regime alone.
I would like to start with the fact that the organization of the internal facility regime in the retail structural divisions of a Retail Company (hypermarkets, supermarkets, shopping centers, etc.) begins with the development of a regulatory act of the Company (Standard or Regulations), which would establish the general provisions of its organization. There is no unified form of such an act, since the management of each Company itself determines the basic principles, limits, degree of provision and other issues of an individual nature of the construction of a system for ensuring access and internal facility regime. Therefore, the provisions of this article are advisory in nature and can be used by managers, taking into account the specifics of each Company. Such a local regulatory act is intended to unify and standardize the basic requirements of the internal facility regime and organize access of employees and visitors to the retail structural divisions of the Company. It is assumed that the scope of application of such a Standard includes the obligation to comply with its requirements by all employees of the Company, and should also apply to representatives of legal entities conducting work or renting premises on the territory of the retail structural divisions of the Company, and individuals — visitors.The next step should be the development in each retail structural division of the Company, based on the Standard, of a local Instruction «On the internal facility regime» of the corresponding retail division, approved by the Director of this division. All employees of the retail structural division should be familiarized with the «Instruction on the internal facility regime» by signature. The Instruction is intended to detail the provisions of the Standard, applicable to a specific retail facility, taking into account the specifics of its format, operating mode, structure of the security unit, engineering and construction and other features. At the same time, the requirements of the «Instructions on the internal facility regime» of the Company's retail structural divisions must not contradict the provisions of the Standard.
In the context of the consideration of this issue, the following terms are supposed to be used:
Protected facilities — the Company's premises subject to protection from illegal encroachment;
Access control — a procedure ensured by a set of measures and rules that excludes the possibility of uncontrolled entry (exit) of personnel and visitors to the Company's premises and the removal of its property;
Access – passage into the Company’s premises;
Internal facility regime – the procedure ensured by a set of measures and rules performed by persons located at protected facilities, in accordance with the requirements of the internal work regulations and fire safety;
Employees – employees of the Company;
Visitors – third parties who have legally received access to the protected facility;
Admission – permission to access premises to carry out a certain type of work or to obtain certain documents and information;
Violator – a person who has committed or is attempting to commit an unauthorized act, as well as a person assisting him in this.
Let's try to formulate general provisions concerning the organization of the access control and internal facility regime of a trading enterprise.
The access control regime at the Company's facilities is established for the purposes of:
— eliminating acts of theft of the Company's property;
— elimination of acts of vandalism by unscrupulous visitors;
— elimination of the possibility of unauthorized access of personnel and visitors to the Company's premises;
The internal facility regime is established for the purposes of:
— compliance by employees and visitors with internal work regulations and fire safety;
— establishing the procedure for admitting employees to the Company's office premises;
— eliminating the possibility of uncontrolled movement of visitors on the territory of the Company.
Reliability of the access and internal facility regimes is achieved:
— by implementing constant control over the arrival, departure and movement of employees during the work shift;
— by implementing security for the Company's premises by employees of the security service departments or private security company employees;
— by implementing control over the condition of technical security equipment;
— recording control measures to ensure access control and internal facility regime in accounting logs;
— using a unified system that prevents unauthorized access to premises, video surveillance, collecting and processing information about employees being late for work, and accurately displaying and objectively documenting events.
The organization of access and internal facilities in the retail structural divisions of the Company is carried out by the directors and heads of the security service of the relevant divisions.
The following recommendations are offered to the attention of readers on the implementation of the procedure for admitting (passing) employees to the territory of a retail enterprise.
1. Employees arrive no less than 15 minutes before the start of the work shift, in accordance with the schedule approved by the head of the structural division, through the service or central entrance to the hypermarket.
2. Upon arrival at the hypermarket, the employee is registered in the employee arrival/departure log, which is kept by the security service employee (sales floor administrator, controller, private security company employee), or records their arrival using technical means of access control and management. The employee independently makes a note in the log indicating the employee's personal data (position, full name), the time of their arrival, confirmed by the personal signature of the arriving employee. In the event of arrival at the workplace later than the time set by the schedule, a note of their arrival is made by the security service employee, with a mandatory subsequent report to the head of the security service. Employees arriving at the hypermarket after its opening (hourly workers, employees with a «floating» schedule, etc.) also make a note in the log of the actual time of their arrival at the workplace.
3. Bringing personal items into the hypermarket, including food products, personal hygiene items, etc., is carried out in quantities necessary to ensure the professional activities of the employee during the current work shift.
Upon arrival at the hypermarket, the employee must present to the security officer all items they have with them, including food products and personal hygiene items, and means of communication available in the hypermarket assortment. The security officer marks all items with a sticker with the stamp «control at the exit», a signature on the stamp of the shift supervisor and the current date. The inability to equip items carried in with a control stamp (food products without packaging and wrapping, with the exception of bread) may be grounds for refusing permission to bring them into the hypermarket.
4. Employees of the hypermarket are strictly prohibited from leaving the perimeter of the hypermarket during their work shift, with the exception of employees performing work outside the hypermarket or leaving the hypermarket on direct orders from management, agreed upon with the head of the security service (in his absence, the shift supervisor). In this case, the fact of agreeing to leave the perimeter of the hypermarket must be recorded in writing. It is preferable to develop a unified form of the «Permission» form, printed on paper. Leaving the territory of the hypermarket during a work shift to resolve personal issues is allowed in exceptional cases on the basis of an application addressed to the director of the hypermarket for the provision of administrative hours. When speaking about an employee leaving the perimeter of the hypermarket, it should be determined what is meant by the perimeter beyond which employees are prohibited from leaving. I believe that if a hypermarket has an anti-theft system installed directly in the checkout aisles, and not at the exit from the cash register area, then the checkout line should be considered the perimeter, allowing only employees performing their job duties in the checkout area (security officers, checkout area managers, senior cashiers, etc.) to leave its boundaries. Even a short-term departure of an employee from the hypermarket is carried out in compliance with the following requirements for the procedure for the departure of an employee at the end of a work shift.
5. Perhaps one of the key points in ensuring access control in terms of preventing and detecting theft by hypermarket employees is the thoroughness of the check of employees leaving the hypermarket after the end of their work shift. It is assumed that after the end of their work shift, when leaving the hypermarket, employees are required to present their carry-on baggage, the contents of their pockets and other items of clothing to the security service employee for inspection. In order to minimize the negativity that may be associated with this procedure, it is recommended that this check be carried out by security officers of the same sex as those being checked. The degree of loyalty demonstrated by an employee when voluntarily presenting all items in his possession for inspection may indicate the employee's «good faith» or «bad faith». This may also be evidenced by other circumstances that suggest the employee's «bad faith» — behavior, inadequate response to a security officer's request, attempts to avoid inspection by leaving the work shift not through the service entrance, etc. In any case, it is necessary to take all measures to ensure that each employee is checked as thoroughly as possible. If there are grounds, the security officer takes measures to carry out a personal search of the employee. Here we are talking specifically about «taking measures to carry out a personal search», since it is known that security officers do not have the right to carry out a personal search. Therefore, the only measure that a security officer can take is to call the police.
If an employee is found to have goods available in the hypermarket assortment without a cash receipt or control seals indicating the current date, the head of the hypermarket security service (shift supervisor) will conduct a thorough check, up to and including an official investigation, in order to establish the legality of the acquisition of the discovered goods.
The procedure for providing visitors with access to the administrative, household and service premises of a retail enterprise may include the following elements:
1. Control over visitors who arrive to see officials of the Company's retail structural division and representatives of regulatory authorities is assigned to security service employees;
2. Upon arrival of visitors to officials of the Company's retail structural division, the security service employee notifies the shift supervisor, who, in turn, notifies the relevant official to whom the visitor has arrived;
3. If the arriving visitor does not have a name badge of the organization he represents, the shift supervisor or another authorized employee issues a badge indicating the personal data of the visitor (first name and patronymic are sufficient) and the name of the organization he represents, as well as the current date;
4. The visitor is allowed to enter the administrative and household premises of the RSP Company only if accompanied by the appropriate official to whom the visitor has arrived, or if accompanied by the shift supervisor (a security service employee appointed by him).
5. The presence of a person who is not an employee of the Company in the administrative, service and utility premises, including on the landing stage, of the retail structural division of the Company without a badge and without being accompanied by an official who is an employee of the Company is not permitted. If such persons are discovered, hypermarket officials are required to take measures to bring this information to the attention of the security service or the management of the hypermarket.
When organizing the internal regime of a retail enterprise, I would recommend including the following provisions in the Standard.
1. The person responsible for compliance with the internal work regulations, the established operating mode, the procedure for maintaining office premises and fire safety measures at the facility is the head of the security service of the retail structural division of the Company.
2. During the work shift, the employee must be dressed in the established uniform with a name badge attached to the left side of the chest.
3. The purchase of food and personal hygiene products during the work shift by employees is permitted during the period from 8:00 to 9:00 for consumption and use for hygiene purposes during the work shift. The purchase of goods during the work shift for use outside the work shift is prohibited. Goods purchased during the work shift, with the exception of sugar, tea and water, are prohibited from being left on the territory of the hypermarket after the end of the work shift (in the locker room, canteen, etc.). It is also prohibited to prepare goods in advance for subsequent purchase as customers and leave them in the sales area or other premises of the hypermarket. The purchase and release of goods outside the established time should be regarded as a violation of the requirements of the Instruction on the internal facility regime. In exceptional cases, the purchase of personal hygiene items outside the established time is permitted at the request of the immediate supervisor and with the agreement of the shift supervisor.4. Cashiers are strictly prohibited from selling alcoholic beverages to employees on shift.
5. After purchasing goods during a shift, an employee must immediately contact a security officer who will mark the purchased goods with a control seal, indicating the current date. In this case, the cash receipt for the goods must be kept until the end of the shift and presented upon exiting the hypermarket along with the goods.
6. Employees of the hypermarket are prohibited from smoking outside of a specially designated place — the smoking room.
7. An employee is allowed to be in the smoking room, dining room, toilet only if they have a special token issued to the employee by their immediate supervisor for the duration of the employee's scheduled break in accordance with the schedule.
8. The schedule of regulated breaks, the duration of which is determined by the head of the retail structural division and is normatively fixed in the Instruction «On the internal facility regime», is drawn up by the employee's immediate supervisors taking into account the following regulations: morning meal from 9:30; lunch from 11:30, evening meal from 15:30. Break for sanitary and hygienic purposes and for visiting the smoking room — no more than 3 times for a duration of no more than 10 minutes, excluding visits to the restroom and smoking room during breaks for eating.
In case of extension of the working day for more than 12 hours, additional breaks for the purpose of eating, visiting the restroom and smoking room are allowed for a period of no more than 10 minutes, not more often than one break every two hours. At the same time, the first additional break should be no earlier than 12 hours from the beginning of the work shift in accordance with the monthly schedule approved by the director of the hypermarket. When drawing up meal schedules, managers must take into account the intensity of the customer flow. The senior cashier is obliged to draw up a schedule of evening meals for cashiers in such a way that the time of their regulated breaks does not coincide with the time of internal collection.
9. It is strictly forbidden for employees to leave the perimeter of the hypermarket from the sales area through the post of the administrators of the sales area «entrance to the sales area».
10. The security officer on duty at the landing stage is required to check the presence of cash receipts and control seals on the goods of employees passing through the landing stage to the dining room and the presence of special tokens issued to employees by their immediate supervisors during the scheduled break.
11. In addition to the above provisions, hypermarket employees are prohibited from:
— conducting photography, filming, or video shooting on the hypermarket premises without permission from management;
— using faulty or homemade electric heating or other electrical appliances during their shift;
— clutter the territory, main and spare entrances (exits), stairwells of the hypermarket with materials and objects that interfere with the video surveillance system, impede the evacuation of people, material assets, prevent the elimination of fire sources;
— commit actions that violate the established operating modes of technical security and fire alarm systems of the hypermarket;
— enter the hypermarket's office premises, landing stage, administrative — utility rooms outside of working hours. If an employee needs to visit the hypermarket's office premises outside of working hours to resolve personal issues (receive wages, write applications, obtain certificates, etc.), the employee is subject to the requirements for the procedure for admitting visitors to the hypermarket's office premises;
— be in the hypermarket's office premises during working hours, where the employee does not perform his or her direct official duties;
— talk to hypermarket visitors and to each other on topics not related to ensuring the trading process, customer service;
— use mobile phones, except during regulated breaks;
— consume food on the hypermarket premises outside the food room (including chewing gum, candies, etc.) and outside the regulated break time;
— use multimedia devices (including music and video players, game consoles, etc.) for entertainment purposes;
— perform, during the shift, other actions not related to the performance of direct job responsibilities.
12. Security service employees and other hypermarket officials, upon detection of violations of the requirements of the Instruction «on the internal facility regime», are obliged to immediately take measures to suppress them. In addition, security service employees immediately report all violations of the internal facility regime requirements to the shift supervisor, who, in turn, records all violations in the accounting documentation. The head of the security service reports all facts of violations of the internal facility regime daily in a memo to the director of the hypermarket, taking urgent measures to suppress them, analyzing the causes and conditions that contribute to the admission of such facts and making recommendations for their elimination. In cases of detection of unpaid goods from hypermarket employees, an inspection must be carried out, and, if necessary, an internal investigation, the conclusion of which is the basis for bringing the guilty person to disciplinary or administrative responsibility, up to and including subsequent dismissal on the grounds stipulated by the labor legislation of the Russian Federation.
Perhaps, the above-recommended elements of the internal facility and access control system at a retail enterprise will seem excessively harsh to someone. However, practice shows that it is quite possible to ensure it, and its positive results in terms of preventing theft by its own employees are also real. The personnel perceive all the above measures quite adequately, especially if they are applied not «suddenly», but immediately from the moment of launching a new facility and recruiting personnel.
As noted at the beginning of the article, the organization of the internal facility regime in accordance with the proposed recommendations will minimize the possibility of theft by employees of retail trade enterprises, but, unfortunately, it is not a panacea. In my opinion, by organizing and subsequently monitoring the access control and internal facility regime, it is possible to achieve:
a) minimization, and with a sufficiently high level of control, and elimination of theft by personnel in the form of direct removal of unpaid goods in hand luggage, clothing, etc.;
b) elimination of the use of unpaid goods during work;
c) a high degree of organization of the work process, and as a consequence, increasing the efficiency of employees’ work and the efficiency of using working time;
d) as strange as it may sound, — reduced staff turnover. Employees who perform their job responsibilities under constant control take this for granted. The consequence of this is a decrease in the number of disciplinary violations, violations of internal work regulations, etc. Accordingly, the number of dismissals also decreases, which ultimately leads to stability of the staff and a decrease in staff turnover;
d) reduced internal losses of the trading enterprise from violations and errors in accounting of goods movement, — again as a consequence of the constant control of line personnel and the effective organization of the work process.
In this article, I wanted to consider the potential opportunities that remain for personnel to commit thefts even in the conditions of an established internal facility regime. But I think we can limit ourselves to only a brief declaration of them, since each of them can be the subject of a separate consideration. In my opinion, such potential opportunities that require additional preventive measures are:
• — theft by personnel in collusion with security officers (a very diverse topic, since the methods and categories of personnel, «weak» control zones, etc. vary);
• — theft by cashiers in collusion with customers;
• — theft by cashiers in collusion with sales floor employees;
• — theft by cargo area managers (goods receipt managers, loading/unloading operators, landing stage managers, etc.) in collusion with suppliers' representatives;
• — theft by using «weak» spots in the engineering and technical fortification of the facility;
• — theft by hiding and then removing goods in the trash;
• — theft directly by security personnel (unfortunately, this also happens);
• — receiving «kickbacks» for inflated orders from suppliers by middle and senior managers. A specific method of corporate fraud that can cause significant losses to a trading enterprise;
• — theft through fraud with accounting documentation, for example, in «own production» divisions in the field of accounting and handling of raw materials.
Perhaps, the list can be continued, I tried to indicate only the most common of them.
To minimize these possibilities, additional control measures are required that go beyond the issue of ensuring access control and internal facility regime, and, accordingly, are the subject of a separate discussion.
I would be grateful to anyone willing to share their personal practical experience on this issue.
Letters can be sent to: vik1969_10@mail.ru
April 20, 2011
Viktor Belov.