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No one wants to work in an unsafe space. Sometimes, the best way to keep employees safe is to close up shop.
Target announced this week that it’s closing nine stores in California, New York, Oregon, and Washington because “theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests,” according to a press release. It will be transferring the employees displaced by the closures to other Target stores.
So, what happened, and what can HR leaders learn from it?
Target’s efforts. Violence has plagued Target recently. CEO Brian Cornell said during a Q2 earnings call that in the first five months of 2023, the company saw a “120% increase in theft incidents involving violence or threats of violence,” the Washington Post reported.
Before deciding to close these stores, Target took several steps to make its workplaces more secure. It increased security personnel, introduced “theft-deterrent tools” such as locks on commonly stolen merchandise, and trained employees to “protect themselves and de-escalate potential safety issues associated with organized retail crime incidents,” the press release stated.
The company also set up an outreach coordinator team to help connect customers experiencing hardships with community resources in an effort to reduce theft, and partnered with associations addressing retail crime in the US.
HR’s job: provide safety. This isn’t the first time Target workers have faced aggression in the workplace, and such experiences aren’t unique to the Minneapolis-based retailer. Walmart, Macy’s, and Whole Foods are among the retailers that have also closed stores due to theft and violence, and retail workers, overall, are among those at the highest risk of workplace violence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Crime can happen anywhere. But it’s up to HR leaders, and the CEO and board, to make sure an environment is safe for workers, Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor of organizational behavior at Stanford, previously told HR Brew.
HR can ramp up safety measures by hosting regular training sessions to teach employees to protect themselves, forming partnerships with local law enforcement, and installing security technology.
But as in the case of Target, even those measures are no guarantee.