Maybo: ‘Retailers can reduce violence at work’

Conflict management specialist Maybo’s latest report into the retail sector suggests that retailers are still not doing enough to reduce the risk to staff from violent offences perpetrated by miscreant individuals.

The report by the SITO STEPS partner – entitled ‘Workplace Violence: A Review of Retail Training Needs’ – suggests that the majority of assaults occur when staff confront, arrest and detain thieves. The British Retail Consortium’s Retail Crime Survey for 2004 (published as SMT went to press) supports this assertion, claiming that 63% of reported violent incidents during the past 12 months followed on from dealing directly with shop thieves.

“Retailers should first focus on reducing staff exposure to the risk,” Maybo chairman Bill Fox – architect of the new report – told SMT. “If businesses wish to reduce assaults and protect their reputation, they simply must work on alternative loss prevention strategies that will be more effective in deterring thieves, and thereby reduce exposure to physical confrontation. This may well involve cross-agency targeting of known violent criminals and the wider use of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders [see this month’s ‘Guarding Watch’ on page 51] and other measures.”

However, there are many other occasions – such as under-age sales or customer complaints – when verbal abuse and threats are experienced across the sector. Fox continued: “This is often foreseeable. Staff can influence the outcome of such situations by the way in which they deal with them. Training is vital in developing the awareness and skills to be able to do this.” The Maybo review concludes that training in these aspects of communication, conflict management and personal safety awareness should be a minimum standard for all members of staff (including, of course, front line security officers) that have to face such abuse.

On arrest, the review states: “Arrest is seen as the preferred option of most loss prevention and security professionals Maybo has interviewed. Where arrest is a legitimate option, the staff engaged in such activity must be trained to a higher level. Recent case law highlights the vulnerability to civil action of employers who fail to provide adequate staff instruction.”