There are numerous benefits to hiring seasonal staff to work in your retail space: a flexible workforce that operates on an as-needed basis, reduced payroll costs, and lower long-term stakes.

Due to the temporary nature of a seasonal worker’s job, however, they could intentionally—or accidentally—put your business at risk for theft or security breaches. Some examples of this risk include: stealing money or merchandise, improperly ringing up items during checkout, giving a customer inappropriate discounts, and compromising private customer information. These are serious concerns in the retail space because they affect not only your bottom line but also your customers’ privacy.

While there are many benefits to hiring seasonal staff, they can also put your business at risk.

Here is a list of strategies that support your seasonal workers, which in turn will help keep your store secure.

Look For Help In All The Right Places—Including Into Potential Employees’ Pasts

  • Ask trusted current employees to recommend friends or family members who may be looking for temporary work. 
  • Run background checks during the onboarding process to detect any red flags before you decide to hire a seasonal employee.

Keep Them Informed

What if a seasonal hire doesn’t know that your store’s BOGO promotion is over, or uses an outdated discount code that significantly reduces product prices? To decrease the risk of accidental and costly mistakes, temporary hires should be up to date on the latest information regarding store discounts, products, and policies. This can be achieved by posting updates or reminders in easily accessible areas, such as in break rooms or lunchrooms.

Make Them Feel Valued

Professional pressure (not feeling appreciated, supported, or having clear expectations of their role) leads to employee theft. Employees who experience less professional pressure are less likely to steal. Make sure your seasonal workers feel valued by communicating realistic job objectives, providing thorough training, and sharing positive feedback with them when you notice a task or job well done.

Grant Them The Least Amount of Access

Provide seasonal employees with access to the essential information or systems that are required for their position. For instance, they may need to be able to open the cash register, but not the safe. Or they may need to log onto the computer system, but not into your customer database. By only providing employees access to essential information and removing their access as soon as employment ends, you’ll lower the risk of a security breach. 

Keeping inventory access to the bare minimum for seasonal employees is another effective way to prevent theft. With Senseon cabinet-level access control systems, you can designate authorized cardholders who can open specific storage spacescustomizing their credentials down to individual drawerswhile keeping unauthorized individuals out. Senseon Plus offers the added benefit of an audit trail, which provides the time, location, and identity of the person who is attempting access. If someone tries to break-in to a cabinet opening with brute force or any other subversion attempt, the system will alert connected systems, such as video surveillance or a silent alarm

Senseon allows managers to designate access to cabinet doors, drawers, display cases and more.

The bottom line: Mitigating security risks associated with hiring seasonal employees is possible if you follow these tips. 

For more on how Senseon helps curb internal and external threats without impacting your customer experience, visit our Retail Access Control page or get in touch with a member of our expert team.