How to Encourage Employee Honesty

employee honesty

The best way to succeed in business in to ensure an environment of open dialogue and especially honesty. The more honest everyone is, the more likely a business will thrive. This keeps from any backbiting, and creates good relationships The reputation of your company being an honest place will get around and shine positively on your business. Every employee is responsible for this, but it comes down to the owner and employer to set this example. However, let’s look at 5 examples of how to encourage honesty in the workplace.

1. Promote open communication

Allowing your employees to communicate openly will allow them to feel heard and considered in their place of work. If they feel that they are able to be honest about some potentially negative things going on at work, they will be able feel like their work environment is always improving. Give them the opportunity to share their concerns, give opinions without them being afraid of what might happen to them if they speak up.

2. Find Solutions to bad behavior

Your employees want to see how you react to a bad seed, or a negative problem. Sometimes it may be important to show your serious side to matters like these. For example, if someone has been stealing from the company, there are many quality in office security monitoring systems. This shows them that you mean business when it comes to honestly in the workplace. They should be able to be honest with you, but if there are transgressions happening, you are showing them that you will deal with them. This will improve negative behavior, or allow you to get rid of them.

3. Fix Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes. Create a setting where your employees can own up to their mistakes, yet have the opportunity to fix these mistakes in a rapid manor. If employees live under the fear of making mistakes means punishing consequences for them, they’ll never own up to anything. Of course you can’t let mistakes continually happen, but if you let employees repair their mess ups, it could lead to a workplace with less mistakes in the future.

4. Reward good work

Along those lines, be sure to reward those employees who are honest, and who do good work. If they are doing things to help your business grow, reward them for that. It will only make them work harder for you.

5. Be an Example

If you hold yourself to the same high standard that you hold them to, they will see that being honest is important to you, and they’ll follow your example. If you’re going to allow them to come to you and be honest about problems, you therefore have the freedom to discuss things you’re concerned about with them. If you have an employee handbook, clearly state that you want honesty to be at the forefront of your business. Make sure when you work with vendors or other customers your employees see you being honest and ethical with them. Your example will lead to success in your business.

Video Verified Alarms Lead to More Arrests

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POWERFUL SURVEILLANCE, POWERFUL RESULTS

Fluent Solutions is proud to offer a comprehensive set of video verified security products and services to its valued clients. Video verified alarms represent an example of the latest state-of-the-art technology that takes security to the next level.

Video verified alarm equipment quite literally enables a video of the triggering event to be transmitted to the monitoring center. A picture is truly worth a thousand words and with this technology, the monitoring center will have the picture of what is occurring at the premises that has threatened its security.

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Having this enhanced technology has numerous advantages including but not limited to exponentially increasing the probabilities of ultimately identifying and catching the intruder, increasing the response time for emergency personnel and presenting a highly efficient and aesthetically appealing apparatus.

This feature may be easily utilized and accessed through convenient apps on mobile devices. This technology may be used in both outdoor and indoor facilities and is an extraordinary outside the box concept for businesses seeking sophisticated state-of-the-art security solutions.


The benefits for commercial customers begin right at the time of installation; wireless installs are faster than traditional wired installations. Therefore, they tend to be more cost effective. As an upgrade to existing intrusion systems, Fluent’s video verification smoothly integrates with the current burglar alarm to enhance an existing system with video for faster police/authority response. For new installs, Fluent’s video verification solution offers a complete standalone system with keypads, sirens, door contacts and other peripherals.

  • Wireless sensors and other devices may be installed wherever sensors/cameras are needed.
  • Actual video verification of a burglary in progress allows for faster and more accurate police response.
  • The sooner law enforcement arrives on scene, the less time intruders have to inflict injury, engage in theft or damage property.
  • Faster response times lead to far more criminal arrests and a reduction in the number and amount of insurance claims.
  • Absolutely no wires to cut on our surveillance motion viewers. Reliable wireless performance means that even if the camera is removed by an intruder, it can continue transmitting video for the police response.

If a business owner exclusively relied on traditional surveillance cameras, the solution would greatly reduce the chances of ever stopping a crime from occurring.

On the other hand, when a business owner or security personnel are alerted to an event that has been detected by a Fluent Solution smart surveillance camera, one may efficiently see and comprehend the situation at hand in real-time, and react accordingly.

“Trying to ‘catch’ an intruder in the act by watching video monitors at the exact moment a break-in occurs is highly unlikely for a number of reasons. The most prevalent is that people, even with the best of intentions, quickly tire staring at monitors.

This approach combines the strengths of machines and people to do what they each do best. Machines — in the form of smart cameras — never tire, and people, when alerted, can make the right decisions about how to respond.”

- SIA Board Member, ref.

CALL OUR OFFICE FOR MORE INFORMATION: 866.736.1067

GPS Vehicle Tracking for Pest Control Fleets and One-Man ops

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As a service professional, ensuring consistent on-time delivery is not a preference but an absolute necessity. When ants, roaches, and spiders are attacking your customers’ homes, they want service immediately. Your ability to expedite service calls directly correlates to your customers’ level of satisfaction with your company or branch. The ability to intelligently dispatch through using Fluent vehicle GPS tracking will also garner you far more referrals than you might otherwise receive.

Interestingly, a series of studies by a leading business technology groups has shown that enterprises who utilize GPS vehicle tracking with their fleets tend to experience significant cost reductions and vastly improved employee productivity:

  • 23% increase in the number of service calls completed per day
  • 14.8% reduction in travel time per job
  • 13.2% reduction in fuel costs

The EPA estimates that one hour of idling time uses 0.82 gallons of fuel. Traveling 5 mph over the speed limit increases fuel costs by $0.20 a gallon. Doing the math, this quickly adds up…


REAL WORLD EXAMPLE.

Assume you have 10 trucks on the road. If all 10 technicians are idle for only one hour, each day while servicing their routes, they will have incurred a 41 gallon deficit just in idle time. (It should be noted that one hour per day of idling is a conservative example as the average tends to be significantly higher).

At $3.50/gallon, you’re paying nearly $600/month in idle gas; this equates to $7,000.00 annually in wasted money because of wasted gas.

READ A FLUENT LOCATE GPS CASE STUDY HERE.


Additionally, the Fluent Locate GPS package for Pest Management Companies offers the following data for insight into your company:gps_equipment

  • Speed Violation Alerts: Set predetermined thresholds that activate when the vehicle exceeds thegps_equipment speed allowed.
  • Excessive Idling Alerts: Be alerted when your companies’ technicians are wasting money leaving trucks and other vehicles on when they should be off.
  • Geofence Alert: Sends messages to defined personnel when vehicles enter/exit virtual zone perimeters around a specific geographic location you have mapped in our software… no more weekend visits to the casinos in company vehicles.
  • Ignition Alerts: Notifies of unauthorized company vehicle use with instant alerts to company personnel when vehicles are used outside of specified operating hours.

What are the Benefits for my Company?

Improve Efficiency

  • Geofence and Ignition Alerts allow management to monitor and ensure that service technicians are on schedule and following assigned routes.

Wiser Expenditure Reports

  • Save on fuel and maintenance costs through eliminating unnecessary and hazardous driving.
  • Reduce the risk of accidents through active monitoring, speed alerts, zone alerts, and ignition alerts, avoiding higher insurance premiums.
  • Monitor and react to after-hours vehicle use and unauthorized stops or delays throughout the work day.

Protect Your Brand

  • Maintain a confident knowledge that your superior pest management brand is accurately being represented professionally by service technicians and other drivers while in the field.

ACCESS OUR PEST CONTROL INDUSTRY DISCOUNT BY CALLING: 866.736.1249

Three Ways a Fluent GPS Will Earn Referrals

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CAN A GPS FLEET OR VEHICLE TRACKER IMPROVE YOUR REFERRAL BASE?

As human nature would validate, your customers passively look for reason to remain loyal to you. Many want to be your lifelong customer — they’re comfortable with you. However, that does not mean you have a free ride. You must continue to work to retain their trust, confidence, and respect. Installing a GPS tracking system is one of the ways you can keep your current customers happy, which aids in acquiring referrals from them.

Referrals are one of the best compliments you can receive from a current customer. A referral would imply that the customer trusts you and is comfortable enough with you to put their own name on the line. A referral is an incredibly high converting lead. If you are in the growth phase of your business (you should always be focusing on growth), acquiring and converting referrals to new clients ought to be a priority in your organization.


YOU MUST PERFORM:

Now deliver what you promised your customers… deliver it well, quickly, and with gusto.

  1. Service Industry
  2. Reason #1 – Provide service on-time, every time.
    Don’t keep them waiting all day: if you are in a service industry you’ll schedule your jobs on a timeline. People waiting on a service call are eager for you to get the job done. Customers are far too familiar with the “cable guy” phenomenon and do not want to wait around all day for you show up.

    Your customers are busy and many have a job. Assigning to them an eight-hour window means they will have to take more time-off than they would likely prefer. With a Fluent GPS tracking system you can arrange for a shorter wait window by getting drivers where they need to go and helping them navigate more efficient routes, allowing for more jobs to be done. This means less people waiting around for your service technician to show. Getting GPS trackers for your vehicles is a smart choice for customer-centric companies.

  3. Goods and Deliverables
  4. Reason #2 – Deliver on-time, every time. Don’t keep them waiting.
    In our world full of Amazons, Ebays, and same-day deliveries, your customers are used to receiving their goods quickly and on time. If you are in the business of delivering goods, your customers are already biased regarding time-of-wait for deliverables. Your drivers will arrive on time thanks to the top-notch Fluent GPS tracker navigation equipment that gives you the ability to steer them from traffic, road construction, bad weather, etc. Your other jobs will run smoother leaving more wiggle room in between delivering when your vehicles are equipped with a Fluent vehicle GPS for efficient fleet tracking.

  5. Vehicular Dispatch
  6. Reason #3 – Dispatch with efficacy and efficiency.
    When they call, you deliver! Simply put – your customers call and you’re able to deliver within minutes or hours; not days and weeks. This builds trust and reliability among your clients. Of course referrals will increase if your customers are astonished by the speed in which you can meet their needs.


    THIS ARTICLE IS BASED OFF OF A BLOG POST ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED HERE.

Seven Signs of Concealed Weapons

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THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN CAMPUS SAFETY MAGAZINE, LOCATED HERE.

Often the observable indicators that an individual is hiding a gun, knife or other weapon go undetected.

The man stood unnoticed outside the grocery store for nearly three hours before his ex-wife arrived. As she stepped from a taxicab, the man quickly stepped toward her and, to the shock of everyone present, quickly raised a 12-gauge pump shotgun from under his coat and killed her. Before the deputy sheriff who was less than 50 feet away could react, the suspect turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.

This homicide occurred even though the grocery store hired an officer to protect patrons and employees. Although the deputy was an eight-year veteran, he did not notice the obvious physical behaviors that indicated he was standing near a heavily armed individual. These indicators could have helped avert the murder had they been noticed in time.

In this case, the victim was killed at a grocery store, but similar attacks have taken place at and near schools, hospitals and institutions of higher learning. In some instances, students have entered K-12 schools and universities undetected while concealing rifles and shotguns before committing multiple-victim homicides.

One valuable tool for campus personnel is the technique of visual weapons screening. Visual screening techniques have been used to recover thousands of firearms and other weapons and have averted a number of planned weapons assaults. Visual screening is an inexpensive and effective means to help counter such dangers as campus violence, gang violence and even terrorism. Visual screening is not a theoretical concept but a proven technique tested under difficult field conditions.

Weapons Violators Come From All Backgrounds

Studies indicate there is no reliable profile of the weapons violator. People who carry and use weapons unlawfully are white, Latino, Asian or any other race or ethnicity. They are male or female. They wear expensive clothing, including tailored suits, and they are from all socioeconomic classes.

A weapons violator may be a high school dropout or, as we have seen in several university shootings, may have a Ph.D or be working on one. The violator may at first glance look like anyone else because there is no reliable or viable profile. In fact, relying on this method can be dangerous. What is consistent about those who carry a weapon unlawfully, particularly a firearm, is the presence of certain physical behaviors. In short, individuals who carry a gun do specific things we can observe because of the presence of the gun on their person.

Rather than relying on ineffective and, in our country at least, illegal methods like profiling, police and security personnel should focus their attentions on the specific behaviors that may indicate the presence of a weapon.

Screeners Must Consider Many Behaviors

Visual weapons screening is a valuable tool that helps officers and others with security concerns spot individuals who deserve closer observation and, when appropriate, a lawful physical search. In some cases, the indicator may be rather weak and will be observed when people are not armed — for example, the sag of a jacket on one side of the body. In other instances, such as when the muzzle of a shotgun can be seen protruding from under a trench coat, we know instantly the individual is in fact carrying a weapon (and in that case, is most likely about to use it).

One of the most important concepts of visual weapons screening is behavior clusters. For example, an individual who fails to swing his right arm may be armed and trying to avoid hitting their elbow on the weapon. But an individual who adjusts something under his clothing above the waistline, looks around very nervously and then walks away while not swinging his right arm when he spots an officer watching him is far more likely to be armed. The totality of circumstances will dictate the degree of likelihood of an individual being armed.

Learn to Recognize These Behaviors

Officers and other campus personnel, such as school counselors and faculty members, have learned to identify the specific indicators that a person may be armed. Below are a few of the most common. It should be noted, however, that the following signs do not always indicate the presence of a weapon:

  1. Security Check:
  2. Gun violators in particular will typically touch and/or adjust the weapons concealed on their bodies numerous times during the day. This may be a gentle and difficult to observe bump with the elbow, wrist or hand. On rare occasions, it could be a distinct grasping of the weapon as they adjust it. Violators often make this gesture when getting out of a chair or a car or when walking up a flight of stairs or high curb.

  3. Unnatural Gait:
  4. Gun violators may walk with an awkward gait. They may fail to bend their knees because they have rifles or shotguns in their pants. They may also walk uncomfortably because they have guns, knifes or other weapons hidden in their boots or shoes causing discomfort. Again, the total circumstances will indicate the likelihood of a weapon being present.

    For example, an individual with a disability may also not bend the leg or walk with an unnatural gait, but he or she will likely not appear to be nervous. You will also not see the rigid line of a rifle running down the outer pants leg as the person walks or the periodic bulge from the butt of the gun above the waistband as it moves back and forth.

  5. Jacket Sag:
  6. When you place a handgun in a jacket pocket, the coat typically hangs lower on the side where the weapon is located. In addition, you will often see the fabric pulled tight from the weight of the gun, and the weapon may swing as a violator walks. Often, the outline of the weapon may be observed in the pocket area. In some cases, the violator will attempt to hold or pin the weapon if it begins to swing or beat against their body.

    In cases where the violator becomes extremely nervous when approached by an officer, he or she may actually grasp the weapon to keep it from swinging or put a hand in the pocket. While this is often seen when people have items other than a weapon in their pocket, it is also an indicator that is very typical of the gun violator, particularly when observed with other behaviors described here.

  7. Hunchback Stride:
  8. When trying to conceal a shotgun, rifle or submachine gun under a coat while walking, the butt of the weapon will often cause a noticeable bulge behind the armpit. Additionally, the jacket does not move naturally because it is supported by the outline of the weapon. Also, when someone wears a shoulder holster or straps on a sawed-off rifle, shotgun or submachine gun under his or her arm, a bulge in front of or behind the armpit will often be visible.

  9. Bulges and the Outline of a Weapon:
  10. An alert officer can often spot the telltale bulge of the weapon or, in some instances, the distinct outline of a handgun, knife or brass knuckles in a violator’s pocket. This may also sometimes be observed in a woman’s purse, book bag or other hand carried item. In some instances, violators wrap a long gun in a blanket or long jacket.

  11. Visible Weapon:
  12. Clearly the most reliable of all the indicators is when the weapon can actually be seen. It is astounding how many times an armed intruder has entered a facility with a rifle or shotgun protruding from under his or her jacket without being observed by staff.

    In some cases, the butt of a handgun is visible because it is sticking out from a back or front pocket. A more common instance is the clip-on pocketknife that can be observed clipped to a front pocket or in the waistband.

  13. Palming:
  14. Most often observed with the edged weapon violator but occasionally seen with gun violators, palming behaviors often indicate imminent risk to the observer. The knife violator may run the blade of the weapon up along the arm or behind the leg to conceal it from frontal view. Just before a target is attacked, a violator will also typically have his or her eyes fixed on the intended victim.

Apply Weapons Detection Practices Wisely

Visual weapons screening has proven to be extremely effective, especially if the screener is properly trained. But as mentioned before, these techniques must be applied with common sense, in accordance with the laws of search and seizure for your situation and with a careful view of the overall context. Visual screening techniques are easy to learn, retain and apply as long as those who need to use them are alert and observant.

Use these simple but powerful techniques to your best advantage. The life you save may be your very own.


Fluent Solution offers many advanced technologies to secure and heighten the awareness of your premise against threats including active shooter scenarios, whether for school security, corporate solutions, retail security, industrial premises, or other commercial properties.


This post was originally published on:
http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/article/7-signs-a-weapon-is-being-concealed/

Written by: Michael Dorn.

Michael Dorn serves as the Executive Director of Safe Havens International, a global non profit campus safety center. During his 30 year campus safety career, Michael has served as a university police officer, corporal, sergeant and lieutenant. He served as a school system police chief for ten years before being appointed the lead expert for the nation’s largest state government K-20 school safety center. The author of 25 books on school safety, his work has taken him to Central America, Mexico, Canada, Europe, Asia, South Africa and the Middle East. Michael welcomes comments, questions or requests for clarification at mike@weakfish.org.

Contact Michael Dorn: mike@weakfish.org