Planning the work of the security service unit of a trading enterprise.
The organization of work of any structural division of a trading enterprise, to ensure maximum efficiency of its functioning, fulfillment of current and strategic tasks facing it, is impossible without planning its work. The same applies equally to the security service division of a trading enterprise.
Planning the work of the Security Service department is designed not only to ensure the proper organization of its work, aimed at achieving specific and significant results. It is also designed to stimulate the work of individual employees, ensure an assessment of the results of their activities in terms of executive discipline, fulfillment of established indicators in work, and motivate them to improve their performance. At the same time, given the specifics of the security service, the work planning system should not turn into a «stick» system, the implementation and use of which, on the contrary, can lead to negative results. The planning system must be flexible enough to take into account the realities of the trading enterprise's activities at a specific point in time and in a specific geographic region.
For example, it is not possible, even within the framework of one retail chain, to set the same planned indicators for the security service employees of a retail facility located in a small city (with a population of up to 100 thousand people) and in a city of 400-500 thousand people.
In this article we will try to consider the basic principles on the basis of which the planned work of the security service department of a separate retail facility (supermarket – hypermarket format) should be organized.
A planned approach to organizing the activities of the unit will allow the head of the security service to organize the work in such a way as to make the most optimal use of human and other resources. It will also ensure consistent improvement of work results, promptly identify shortcomings in the work and develop measures to eliminate them, as well as develop measures aimed at more effectively solving the tasks facing the unit, in particular, to minimize the losses of the trading enterprise.
We can conditionally distinguish several main stages of planning when organizing the work of the Security Unit:
- Strategic planning of the work of the Security Unit;
- Current planning of the results of the work of the Security Unit;
- Planning individual performance results of security service employees.
Strategic planning of the work of the security service unit
Strategic or long-term planning of the work of the security service department of a separate retail facility is usually carried out on the basis of a plan to minimize losses, drawn up by the management of the Security Service of the retail company for a certain calendar period. The most optimal is to draw up a strategic plan for the work of the Security Service department of the retail facility for a calendar year. The plan is drawn up by the head of the security service of the retail facility, agreed upon with the director of the retail facility and approved by the management of the company's Security Service.
The peculiarity of this stage is that the strategic plan should include measures related not only to the immediate and daily activities of the security service unit, but also other measures, including those involving other units of the retail facility, aimed at compensating for damage, minimizing losses, eliminating any risks and threats to the retail enterprise and a specific retail facility.
Sample form of the plan:
Plan of measures to minimize losses in the hypermarket «_________» in the city of _________________ for 2011.
№ Item Activities and areas of work Completion date Responsible executor Note (completion mark)
The structure of the annual plan for minimizing losses can have any form. It seems rational to divide the planned activities into separate blocks by areas of activity, for example:
- Personnel work. Includes measures to ensure personnel security, preventive work with personnel, professional training of personnel of the security service unit, formation of a personnel reserve of security service employees, organization of work with new employees, reduction of staff turnover, etc.
- Technical means of ensuring security. Measures are planned concerning modernization, replacement of provision of preventive and scheduled maintenance of existing technical means of ensuring security, innovative measures for implementation of new security systems, etc.
- Preventive measures to minimize losses. This section may include measures not directly related to the activities of the security department, but aimed at minimizing losses of the trading enterprise in the course of ensuring operational activities — control over the conduct of inventories, control over document flow, scheduled and unscheduled inspections during the acceptance of goods, allocation and organization of control over the movement of risk group goods, etc.
- Tactical methods of ensuring security. Includes measures developed on the basis of the analysis of the results of the final inventory of losses, tactical measures to identify and eliminate risks and threats to a trading enterprise, operational measures, development of tactical methods to optimize the use of technical security equipment (for example, an anti-theft system), etc.
- Development of instructions and regulations. Planning of activities for clear legal regulation of all processes ensuring the functioning of a retail facility, potentially dangerous in terms of the emergence of any risks of commercial activity or security threats (business processes, ensuring the safety of inventory items, waste disposal, internal facility regime, ensuring the functioning of in-house production units, etc.).
An important point is control over the implementation of planned activities. In the absence of proper control, the very meaning of planning any activities is lost. It is rational to control the implementation of the plan in question by the head of the retail facility (Director of the hypermarket, manager, etc.), as well as by senior employees of the Company's security service.
When implementing long-term strategic planning, it is not always possible to specify with sufficient certainty the deadline for the implementation of a particular planned event. Or the implementation of planned events must be of a continuous nature. In this case, it is necessary to specify intermediate control points (dates), by which a report on the work done in the relevant area of activity or event must be provided.
Current planning of the results of the work of the Security Service unit I can assume that if the need for strategic planning of the work of the security service is unlikely to cause doubts in anyone, then the introduction of a planning system in relation to the current results of the work of the Security Service unit may cause controversy and categorical rejection. Opponents can be understood, since the planned approach can be negatively associated with the «stick» system of planning the results of work, for example, of the internal affairs agencies, or with the «excesses» that took place in the recent past of our country, which universally worked on the basis of a «planned economy». However, one cannot but admit that the incentive for introducing a planned approach to any area of activity was, first of all, increasing labor productivity and improving the results of production (or service) activities. Accordingly, there was a rational grain in this approach.
Another issue is that almost any, even the most potentially successful undertaking can be brought to nothing or even given a negative vector if you approach it statically and thoughtlessly, focusing only on management and directives «from above». In the same way, the process of planning the results of the work of the security service of a trading enterprise can be turned into a process of automatic racing «for the result» by any means. And this will inevitably lead to padding, and to provocative actions, and to other negative consequences, and the result will be directly opposite to the expected one. But this process can be turned into an effective tool for improving performance and a motivational incentive for the employees of the department. Based on the above, the proposed option for planning the work of the department is, of course, advisory in nature. The possibility and necessity of its application are determined by the heads of the security service and departments of the trading Company of the corresponding level. Based on the practice of using a planned approach, we can propose the following option for current planning of the work of the Security Department of a trading facility. Current planning is based on the system of accounting for the results of the Security Department's work. The most common positions that are recommended to be included in the detection plan for the security service division are the detection of thefts and the detection of personnel errors that result in damage to the trading enterprise. It should be borne in mind that we can only talk about the number of detected facts of causing and preventing damage, but in no case about the amount of prevented damage, since this indicator cannot be predicted. Current planning carried out for a calendar month is optimal. The plan is drawn up by the management of the security service of the trading company based on the analysis of statistical data on the results of the work of the relevant security division for previous reporting periods. Moreover, both for reporting periods immediately preceding the planned period, and for similar periods of the previous year. It is also advisable to draw up the plan taking into account the opinion of the head of the security service of the relevant trading facility.
Thus, when determining the standard for identifying facts of damage to a trading enterprise (theft and personnel errors) for the security service department of a trading facility for the upcoming reporting period, a calendar month, the following points should be taken into account:
a) Analysis of statistical data on the results of the department's work for previous reporting periods (two to three months). In this case, positive or negative dynamics of detection should also be taken into account.
b) Analysis of statistical data on the results of the department's work for the same period last year.
c) Staffing of the security service department, in accordance with the staffing schedule;
d) Presence or absence of periods of rush customer flow in the planned period (pre-holiday, holiday days, etc.);
e) Other objective circumstances that may affect the fulfillment of planned indicators for identifying facts of damage (length of service of the main staff, their level of professional training, availability of vacations, level of crime in the area of the retail facility, etc.).
One of the important aspects of current planning of work results is a flexible approach to assessing the results of the implementation of the detection plan. It is flexibility in assessing the results of the plan that will help to avoid a formal approach and negative consequences in the form of padding, artificial creation of situations for personnel to make mistakes (provocative actions) and other abuses. A flexible approach to determining the results of the plan involves taking into account objective circumstances that were not or could not be taken into account in advance (staff turnover of department employees, etc.). Flexibility also involves taking into account the nature of the identified facts of damage, as well as taking into account the overfulfillment of the plan for some indicators while underfulfilling the plan for others. For example, the plan for the number of identified thefts was fulfilled by 70%, but at the same time operational work was carried out, as a result of which a criminal group was identified and detained and significant damage was compensated. Or the plan for identifying personnel errors was fulfilled by 85%, but at the same time 30% more thefts were identified than planned.
Fulfillment or non-fulfillment of the damage prevention plan, as well as overfulfillment of the plan, can be taken into account by the Company's management as one of the criteria for determining the personal performance of the head of the security service of a retail facility, for example, key performance indicators when calculating the size of the bonus part of the salary. Planning individual performance results of SB employees Based on the detection plan of the security service unit for a calendar month, the head of the security service of a retail facility plans the individual performance results of the unit's employees. Of course, it would be wrong to apply an arithmetic approach to individual planning, that is, it is impossible to equally distribute the number of damage detection facts planned by management among all employees of the unit equally. I suggest that when implementing individual planning of the performance results of security service employees of a retail enterprise, adhere to the following recommendations: Individual detection standards for security service employees of a retail enterprise «Detection plan by security units of retail structural units of a retail trade Company». Individual standards are developed by the heads of security services of the relevant RSPs on a monthly basis and are approved by the senior head of the Company's security service no later than three days before the next reporting period, after which, no later than two days before the start of the next reporting period, they are communicated to the personnel against signature. Individual standards for detection are established only for employees who have completed their probationary period after employment.
When developing individual detection standards for the upcoming reporting period, the following categories of damage facts are planned, which go into the individual result of the employees of the security department: — Theft; — Personnel errors. When determining the standards for each employee, the head of the security service must take into account the following criteria: — Length of service; — Job category; — Priority areas for identifying categories of damage facts (for example: theft, — for hidden mode); — Estimated number of shifts in the planned reporting period, taking into account the upcoming regular vacation, business trip, and other circumstances. In the presence of objective circumstances that may affect the failure of a specific employee to fulfill the individual plan, if these circumstances were not taken into account and could not be taken into account when planning the standard, the head of the security service of the retail facility has the right, in agreement with the manager who approved the plan for the reporting period, to reduce the individual detection standards for this employee. In this case, the head of the security service of the relevant department independently evaluates the objectivity of these circumstances, guided by his inner conviction and common sense.
When summing up the work for the reporting period and determining the bonus portion for each employee, the Head of the Security Service evaluates the degree of plan fulfillment for each category of damage facts. If the plan for one category, for example, for identifying personnel errors, is underfulfilled, but the plan for identifying thefts is overfulfilled, the head has the right to offset this redistribution of the number of identified facts and evaluate the plan fulfillment at 100%. At the same time, the underfulfillment of the plan for each category of damage facts should not exceed 20%. The head of the service has the right to evaluate the most significant episodes of identified or prevented damage independently. For example, with a standard of 4 thefts, the shift supervisor identified only two thefts. But one fact is theft of personnel, in identifying which the shift supervisor demonstrated professional skills and abilities, carried out certain operational-tactical or intelligence work. In this case, plan fulfillment can also be estimated at 100%.
In addition, when summing up the work of the senior shift managers, the head of the service has the right to take into account the work on collecting compensation for damage from persons who committed theft. The most significant results of work in this area can partially compensate for the failure to fulfill the plan for identifying individual categories of facts of damage. At the same time, the failure to fulfill the plan should also not exceed 20% of the established norm. In conclusion of the consideration of the issues raised in this article, I would like to note once again that the author does not at all call for the introduction of a «stick» system for the security departments of commercial enterprises. However, he insists that certain elements of a planned approach, when organizing the work of departments and security services, if implemented correctly, can significantly increase the efficiency of activities, contribute to an increase in the level of discipline and motivation of employees, and eliminate the presence of ineffective employees in departments.
Belov Viktor Nikolaevich
Email: vik1969_10@mail.ru