Loss prevention and security are often closely connected since increased security measures and protocols are frequently used as a form of loss prevention and a way to reduce shrink within a company. There are a number of other factors and measures used to reduce loss of earnings or product losses, including ensuring employee and customer happiness and eliminating opportunities for people to be injured at a workplace. Loss prevention and security often go hand-in-hand, however, as one of the best ways to reduce a loss of profits or earnings is through theft prevention.
The goal of loss prevention and security is typically to ensure that a company does not lose money due to theft, either from employees or outside sources. Theft is one of the major contributors to a loss of profits for a company, especially retail companies that heavily rely on incoming money for the products offered. When these products are stolen, the company loses money due to the actual loss of the product, but there is also a loss of money due to the fact that someone who may otherwise want to buy that product will then not be able to find it in the store. This is why loss prevention and security are often associated and used together in a workplace.
One of the most common ways in which loss prevention and security can be implemented together is through the use of anti-theft measures. These often involve the placement of cameras in a store or workplace, visual detection and physical deterrence of theft due to employee presence, and the use of physical devices to reduce theft. Such devices often include electronic tags placed on or in products, which must be deactivated before the product leaves a store or else an alarm sounds.
Loss prevention and security are also typically connected in reducing opportunities and occasions of internal theft from employees at a company. This is a risk in both retail workplaces and non-retail environments such as offices, from which employees can steal supplies, computer hardware, and trade secrets. Increased use of security in these workplaces can include running background checks on employees to prevent theft risks whenever possible and monitoring employees that handle money through video camera surveillance. Loss prevention and security are often both parts of the same department within a company, and funding to loss prevention in general is often used to provide funding for greater security.
