We have all faced the fear of being replaced or eliminated by technology, budget cuts, bankruptcy, liquidation, or by a simple change in the political climate. Today that holds true more than ever before. And we need look no further than the west coast docks, e-recruiting, Kmart’s decreasing work force, the Ames liquidation, and Argenbright’s dwindling airport contracts to see perfect examples. However to believe the current popular gossip that there is a growing trend of outsourcing loss prevention field services that will ultimately threaten jobs in the retail loss prevention industry is in actuality an uniformed misnomer and reflects fear of change and evolution.
To eradicate this fear and understand this evolutionary process one must look at why outsourcing loss prevention field services has become a popular model and in reality will create more jobs, impact more companies and cause growth for the retail Loss Prevention industry!
Outsourcing field loss prevention services at its core is merely a shared services concept applied on a multi-company, macro scale for a support group function. This maximizes economies of scale and passes on the savings to the end users; the client companies. With the key being maintaining if not increasing the quality of service delivered. And taking into consideration the current economic climate every company in America is looking for ways to save money and maintain services without sacrificing quality.
The actual business of outsourcing loss prevention field services in a retail environment began decades ago by the same men and women that pioneered the retail security industry itself; former law enforcement executives. However, while the retail security industry grew in numbers, and in its level of sophistication and cultural sensitivity and transformed itself into the Loss Prevention industry; the public law enforcement community, with all due respect, didn’t have the resources, time, or need to.
Therefore, the retailers who couldn’t afford or didn’t have their own loss prevention executives were relegated to contracting out the work to; retired unemployed law enforcement executives who were expensive and one dimensional, to expensive investigative firms populated with non-retail executives, or to a very small number of first generation retail loss prevention executives who found themselves unemployed for some reason with no support and needing to pass on any and all travel expenses which drove prices up. And with the growing disparity between law enforcement services and a retailers loss prevention needs, and with the retailers need for same day response; quality was hurting.
The retail industry has grown over 35% over the last twenty years and the retail loss prevention industry has kept pace with that growth. Over the years a number of retail models have flourished and a number haven’t. And evolution has impacted everyone, from the dockworker in California to the loss prevention executives at Ames, Wards, Caldor, Hills, Zayre’s, Hechingers, Thrifty Drug, Builders Emporium, Home Base, and the list goes on and will continue to grow. But what we now have is second and third generation displaced loss prevention executives looking for careers and a group of retailers needing quality service from “subject matter experts”.
In the early 90’s small retail loss prevention field service outsourcing companies staffed with second-generation retail loss prevention experts began to spring up and flourish. And the small retailer who couldn’t afford their own program or who had just not started one or regretfully had a bad experience with one began to see and feel the quality service that this industry can truly deliver. However the pricing still reflected rather heavy travel expenses due to their being regionalized and not national in scope and quality at times suffered due to their need to subcontract out certain portions of their services. These few companies established the need and in effect gave birth to the beginning business models.
In the mid to late 90’s the larger national model was introduced by LP Innovations and has met with much success and controversy. But then again so has anything that is new and improved and that works! Now, they and a few others who have recently joined the ranks of this kind of service provider are basically able to deliver retail loss prevention field services on a national level in a regional setting at a fraction of the cost. The model flex’s, stops and goes, and is built by-for-and with retailers. This is evolution that came about as a result of the need for the service, the demand for quality, and the supply of the executives!
The absolute ideal client has been and will always be the small to medium retailer who: can’t afford their own program, hasn’t started a program, wants more of a program than what they have, or who regretfully isn’t happy with their current program. Case in point is the Wilsons story where their own Director of Loss Prevention called the outsourcing company in due to their model being unable to adequately flex to cover their 300 seasonal stores in a cost effective manner. The outsourcing model was successfully applied and every Wilsons Loss Prevention executive, excluding the Director who went into business for himself, quickly found comparable jobs in this growing industry.
Yes, there is risk in life and none of us are totally safe from change and e-recruiting has certainly impacted our search firm. But these outsourcing models are in actuality growing our industry by showing the smaller and medium retailers who we are and what we can do. Jobs are being created, careers built, and the bottom of the pyramid is expanding. And that’s a good thing! And at the end of the day the only ones who need to worry are those who have something to worry about.
If we truly go about our business and add value each day and lead our respective business then e-recruiting won’t replace us and an outsourcing model won’t replace you. And then it becomes our friend and after all aren’t they us!
