Background Screening Trends In Retail Industry

By Author: Naman Vohra
Total Articles: 42
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In retail industry retailers purchase products in large quantities from manufacturers or wholesalers and sell to the consumer in smaller quantities for a profit. From the selling floor to the stock room and warehouse, retail employees should meet high standards of loyalty, performance, and credibility. Hence, competent and qualified employees are essential for the delivery of customer service necessary for success of the industry. This calls the importance of hiring loyal employees.

Poor hiring decisions most certainly have a negative impact on sales, and in many cases result in theft or misconduct. Fraud and theft initiated by employees continue to cost retailers in millions which has become the main concern of the retail industry. With employee theft continuing as the largest contributor to a retail company's annual loss, how can a retailer find employees who will be an asset rather than a detriment to their organization?

Hiring of quality workforce with the enhancement in hiring processes is one the good answers to this very challenge faced by the retail industry. Background screening is the most important tool which will help retail industry in loss prevention and risk management process, it will help to hire experienced, trustworthy employees and mitigate various risks such as theft, fraud and violence.

As per survey conducted by a leading background verification company in India, highest discrepancy in retail industry displays in the 40-49 age group, followed by 25-29 brackets. The same company has conducted an analysis of discrepancies as per the checks for the years 2010-11. 2011-12 and 2012-13. It displayed that there is a decrease in employment and address discrepancy during the year 2012-13. Employment check discrepancy showed an initial increase to about 37% in 2012-13 from about 30% in 2010-11, which again dipped to around 22% in 2012-13. Discrepancy rate in address check, on the other hand, maintained a decline from around 16% in 2010-11 to around 14% in 2011-12 which again declines to 7% in 2012-13. Reference check has consistently been at around 12% over the fiscals. Education discrepancies in this sector are very negligible a very few educations being verified.

With an effective background screening policy in place, retail industry can minimise the risk of the fraud, theft and employee misconduct to a large extent which will be of great assistance in the success of the retail industry in the long run.