by Natalie Beck

Security precautions in the Canadian retail market are on the rise according to a new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Retail Council of Canada. More and more retail stores are employing the use of video surveillance and alarms in their stores in addition to strategically placing more employees on the floor to spot those who suffer from the “sticky finger syndrome.” These measures are being utilized to combat both internal and external theft.

I was a little disappointed to see only a sentence or two about conducting background checks on store employees as the study indicates that 33% of retail theft results from inside jobs. Of course, I understand that that wasn’t the intent of the article written about this study but if retail employers want to decrease the instances of theft in the workplace, it is important that they have information on what constitutes a good background check on a employee. You cannot go wrong with an address history search coupled with a comprehensive criminal records check. Throw a credit report into the mix if the person will be handling money. And don’t forget the sex offender registry search if your employee will be working closely with the public (especially children). Depending on the job type and/or job responsibility, there are always additional services you can add. Retail employers should want to make sure that the person they are hiring does not have theft conviction in their past. If 100% of retailers conducted comprehensive background checks on all of their employees (and not just the 48% that stated in this survey they conduct a criminal check before they hire a new employee), I’d bet you’d see the percentage of employee thefts drop considerably.

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