This double-edged sword of increasing risk as a result of increased performance is present in all industries. But nowhere else is it as pronounced as it is in the loss prevention industry.

At its core our industry is expected to audit, train, and investigate its employee and customer populations for theft and procedural compliance. These actions alone automatically separates us as a social group within these populations and creates an us-versus-them atmosphere that everyone feels, but few talk about or even admit exists.

Especially at the entry-level positions, this relationship is fueled by a lack of business maturity and the fact that our functions can be self-perceived as increased control over others, which feeds the ego and ultimately decreases our ability to communicate within the employee populations that we are so dependent upon for information, behavior modification,and acceptance.

Building Relationships
Our industry, like most others, is going through a technological revolution that is advancing to such an extent that it is decreasing the need for human information and increasing our ability to monitor real-time behavior, which ultimately increases our performance and deliverables, but can feed the us-versus-them atmosphere.

Every industry executive I speak with agrees that building relationships throughout an organization is the key to success and that truly influencing change and integrating a loss prevention culture throughout an organization can only be done if the relationships we have with others outside of our industry is such that they understand, agree, and embrace our objectives, programs, and the information we provide.

This us-versus-them atmosphere, regardless of our intention, works against this need for building relationships.Therein lies the frustrations and problems we hear so much about in our industry, and can ultimately lead to the success or failure of a loss prevention executive.

Understanding the Customer
Building relationships throughout an organization or store is a difficult task, but it begins with understanding that as a service provider, our customer is that store, district, region, or corporate office we work in. And like any other customer, our organization is trying to influence or win over, we must learn how to build a good relationship in order to deliver our services. It is the relationship we have with others that will determine how far we can go or not go.

Relationships are always two sided. Each side has its beliefs, objectives, and needs. To expect a relationship to flourish, one must first understand what those beliefs, objectives, and needs are and be willing to work within them in order to influence them towards our beliefs, objectives, and needs. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to accept them, but it does require that you are flexible and open to what the other person’s position is and that you modify your behavior first in order to win their acceptance of yours.

Much too often we hear how impossible it is to get anything done in a specific store, district, region, or corporate environment. While financial concerns always present varying degrees of resistance, it’s usually the executive who has failed to build the relationships necessary to influence change within an organization that is the problem.

Becoming a True Team
Certainly, delivering a quality service is critical to the survival of any organization or executive. And continuously
redefining and challenging the processes behind our deliverables is imperative to maintaining a best-in-class loss
prevention model.

But are we as an industry truly developing the soft skills at the entry and middle-management levels to ensure that we maximize performance and development of our staff? Have we taken the concept of team beyond our own boundaries to incorporate the whole organization we work within?

At the end of the day, one can see the strength of the relationships we’ve built by virtue of our staff being included in their team each and every day.