Conglomerated Watchdogs

If we look at the major concerns faced by the Big and Small Retailers in the present context Shrinkage will be among the most challenging ones.Shrinkage is percentage of loss of inventory between manufacture and point of sale.It occurs due reasons like shoplifting, employee theft, administrative errors and supplier fraud.

Lets have a look at the most common yet non-remediable problem:- Employee theft

All retailers, big and small, though fearful of the problem, refrain from making reference to impact of this menace that is affecting their bottom-lines and operating efficiency.So what can be done???????

Recently, According to a report in Economic Times,Big retailers like Biyani's Future group,Raheja group, Spencer’s Retail, Reliance Retail and Aditya Birla Retail have now decided to join hands with a view to combat the growing menace that is directly killing their profits.This move is said to be taken in order to combat lower margins due to such activities.

According to the second annual Global Retail Theft Barometer 2008 Survey, which covered 920 large retailers across 36 countries, India had the highest shrinkage rate of 3.10% during the year, an increase of 6.9% over last year.The irony in this decision is that large players who are very competitive and are not ready to compromise on any issues have joined hands for this problem which shows the impact which employee thefts has on their profit margins.

Under this initiative these players will create a blacklist of employees who are found guilty of theft and indulging in unethical practices and rude behaviour with customers.The blacklisted employees will find it extremely difficult to get employment with another retailer once such lists are prepared and become available to members of the group.This measure is originally sourced from the IT industry which is also surrounded by problems like Data theft and duplication.Retailers Association of India (RAI), is also planning to create a list on similar lines.

Now, after understanding the whole picture and the remedial steps taken by companies most of the questions are answered except one.Big Retailers have formed ways to identify employees who are engaged in such activities but have they ever thought of forming a conglomerate body which can identify potential employees .which can help the employees to excel and concurrently allow the organization to grow with the help of employee motivation.I hope these big shots can look into this problem with an altogether different perspective for the beeterment of the industry.