What can loss prevention professionals expect in the future? “Change, change and more change,” says Vic Jacinto, U.S. safety and security manager for Ikea.
Jacinto, who has been with Ikea for 21 years and oversees all things safety- or security-related, is speaking at NRF’s premier retail security event, NRF PROTECT 2022 in Cleveland, taking place June 21-23. His session? “Change is here. Is your LP team ready?”
Read on for more of Jacinto’s perspective on the adapting LP landscape and building teams that can thrive.
U.S. safety and security manager for Ikea
So much of the retail environment has changed over the last two years. What were some of your key loss prevention goals two years ago and what are the goals today?
Two years seems like a lifetime ago, but at that time we were very focused internally on streamlining how we support our units. That was completely upended and today we are focused on providing adequate training to get our loss prevention managers and teams the training they need. We have experienced quite a bit of internal movement and turnover in our teams and our training programs weren’t robust enough to handle such immense change at once.
We are also working with our digital solutions teams and external partners to find and implement solutions that save our teams time on some of their administrative tasks so they can focus efforts elsewhere in the business.
What are some of the threats and challenges facing retail LP professionals today and what can companies do to adapt to the LP world of tomorrow?
Social and political changes and unrest that affect the retail business, including how loss prevention operates, are things that can’t be underestimated. Today’s retailers must focus on being adaptable and flexible, and emergency/crisis management teams must be ready to think and react on their feet for whatever crisis comes next.
What can executive leadership do to help improve their company’s safety culture or business continuity efforts?
As far as business continuity, make sure the plans are updated and tested periodically during tabletop exercises. Following an event, perform an after-action review and make necessary changes to all plans, including business continuity plans.
When it comes to safety culture, it must be embedded within the culture — just as it is implied with the term “safety culture.” It sounds simple enough, but it’s not. It must start day one with a new employee, and it must repeat and continue throughout the organization — with every employee and at every level — every single day.
What are the three most important things when building an LP program?
First, build the framework based on the organization’s needs using a risk assessment approach. Second, ensure the objectives are tied into the organizational strategy, which also secures a budget — whether operational or innovational. Third, find, hire and retain the right talent — people who can meet or adapt to the organization’s culture while helping to achieve the loss prevention goals and objectives.
What’s next for the loss prevention industry?
Change, change and more change. The loss prevention industry, like many of us, can’t grow stale and must be able to adapt to meet the needs of the business, the customer, our employees, the changing laws and social landscape, and the changing technology.
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