Special Interest Articles

Welcome to December’s Newsletter 1

Message from Client Director

Darren Leigh 2

Health and Safety at Work by

Deborah Sheath 3

Message from Client Director,

Yolande Frederick 5

Employees of the Month 6

Security Workshop 6

Top Scores 6

Message from CCO Tony Sheath 7

Message from Sandra Zschoke 7

Message from HR Director,

Sarah Pucenot 8

Message from the CFO,

Chris Dean 9

Corporate Social Responsibility by

Liboria Cannatella 10

Contact Details

Linton House

39-51 Highgate Road

London

NW5 1RT

Telephone:

020 7837 2012

Fax:

020 7837 1221

Email:

info@interr.com

Web Site:

www.interr.com

December 2014

Contents

The actual show on December 2nd used a huge

security team and was a resounding success with

a very happy client that was very clear proof that

your company has a management team that all

lead by example and do whatever it takes to get

the job done!

Aside from the company

success you will have read

in various places about our

charity work with both

‘KidsOut’ and ‘Hounds for Heroes’. This is work

that we are all extremely proud of, not only

because we are giving money to charities that

really make a difference to peoples lives, but

also because we can give something even more

important…..our time. The time we volunteer to

‘KidsOut’ actually means that groups of children

can go on a fun day out, its all very well having

the money to pay for days out but if there is

nobody to take them it just wouldn’t happen.

The Winter Wonderland day at the end of

November was both rewarding and emotional for

all the Interr staff that attended, I personally am

attending another kids party in Birmingham in a

few days and will continue to support both

charities in a very active way throughout 2015.

If anyone would like to volunteer a day of their

time to this very worthy cause then please

contact me through the office and we can discuss

upcoming dates for events.

2015 is already set to be another incredible year

for Interr. We have many new opportunities for

all divisions of the business including Reception &

Concierge, Security, Cleaning and Consultancy.

Existing clients are opening more locations across

the World and we have a newly appointed Head

of Overseas Operations starting with us in

January to ensure our International business

continues to grow. We could not do what we do

without you, so I would like to make sure that

you all know how valuable you are to the compa-

ny and how much we appreciate your hard work

in providing the highest standards possible…..the

very thing that makes Interr different from all

the rest!

Wishing you all and your families a very Happy

New Year.

Message from Roderick Arnold, Managing Director

By the time most of you read

this newsletter Christmas will

all be over…for those of you

who celebrated with your

families I hope you had a

lovely day and are not suffer-

ing with indigestion from

overindulgence! I know for most of you

working at Interr the Christmas break will be

very short with ‘all hands on deck’ for the

Winter Sales all starting on Boxing day, and

we are very grateful for all of your efforts and

hard work over what is always the company’s

busiest time.

As it’s the end of the year it is also a good

time to have little look back over a few of the

highlights from 2014. One of the biggest

successes was to achieve our amazing score of

+166 for the SIA ACS, this put us in the top 5%

of all security suppliers in the country and was

well worth all the hard work and late nights

that the team put in to achieve this, and as if

this wasn’t enough we were also nominated in

2 categories for the IFSEC awards last month

(Security Guarding Company of the Year, and

Security Manager of the Year).

We have also started to work

with some fantastic new

customers this year including

Uniqlo (in Germany & the U.K),

John Varvatos and American

Eagle. Sports Direct have contin-

ued to give us more responsibility for their

business over 2014 by giving us more West and

Eastern European stores and their H.O build-

ing, we have opened new J Crew stores in both

Hong Kong and London and just this month we

were trusted by Victoria’s Secret to provide

ALL the security for their famous Fashion Show

(the worlds largest fashion event) at Earls

Court in London. This was the biggest single

event we have ever worked on and the entire

management team were involved over a 5 day

period from moving 45 supermodels and dia-

mond jewellery to securing hotels and VIP CP.

Mission Statement

To develop and supply outstanding and innovative solutions to diverse customers through dedication and

a companywide commitment to excellence.

2

Message from Client

Director, Darren Leigh

Incident and Accident Reports

It is important to know the correct escalation for incidents at our sites especially over the upcoming holiday peri-

od where a lot of sites will have their staff away for the holidays. It is also very important to remember that all

incidents must not only be escalated correctly but that a full detailed incident report must be completed and sub-

mitted to Interr as soon as possible but no later than 12 hours after the incident taking place. This escalation and

reporting process is in place not only for our clients’ protection but insurance purposes as well.

Please see below our standard escalation chart and guidance on what constitutes an incident. There will be some variation on

this dependent on client requirements (where this is the case you will be trained). The Interr operations team must be in-

formed of any incident at the same time as the client being notified if the standard escalation route is amended due to client

requirements. If you are in any doubt if something is an incident while on duty please call our operations team is on call 24

hours a day to support you.

Site Incident Escalation Route

All incidents must be reported following the below escalation route. The more serious the incident the more urgent it is that

you report it to the operations team as quickly as possible.

Remember any incident that occurs must be accompanied by a report whether it’s major or minor. An incident report must be

completed in full detail and received by operations within 12 hours of the incident taking place.

Guidance notes on Incidents:

An incident is an occurrence that interrupts normal

procedure that needs to be brought to the attention of

either the client or Interr management.

You must phone through to report immediately and

complete accurate paperwork at the earliest opportunity

within 12 hours of occurrence or awareness.

Examples:

Bomb threats

Fire/ building evacuations

The calling of the emergency services

A maintenance issue

Attempted burglary out of hours

Assaults on personnel / customers

Actions resulting in temporary closure

Theft resulting in loss/persons detained

Accidents resulting in serious injury

Staffing issues that require head office support

Any incident which could impact on the reputation

of the client / company

3

The more you become focussed on the task the less

you see of the danger

Try to relate this to your work environment. For example:

regular maintenance is required at high level. Your mainte-

nance man has a small stepladder and a full ladder at his

disposal. Although the set of steps isn’t really high enough,

he finds that he can reach if he stands on the top step, and

this saves him having to go out into the tool store to fetch

the ladder. His manager knows he does this, but has never

challenged him on it. He’s never fallen off yet, has he?

The next time he carries out this activity, he loses his bal-

ance and falls, injuring himself quite badly. His manager

disciplines him for not following procedure, as he feels this

has caused the accident. But, is this the correct action?

Will this prevent him, or others, doing the same thing

again? Or will they continue to work in the same way, as

long as the manager doesn’t find out?

How do you change behaviour?

If you punish someone for doing something wrong, you will

only ever achieve minimal compliance. People will only do

things because they ‘have to do it’. If you celebrate posi-

tive behaviour in those people who are doing it right, then

more people will want to do things correctly. For this to

work, though, your positive messages need to outweigh the

punishments by a ratio of 4:1.

Health and Safety at Work by Deborah Sheath CMIOSH, Director of Risk, Interr Group

Understanding Human Behaviour in

relation to Accidents

How often have you heard it said after an

accident ‘well, it was just down to human

error’…….?

Actually, 90% of accidents are caused by human failure.

BUT 99% of human failure is caused by the prevailing

conditions, i.e. something has caused that human

failure. No-one gets up in the morning intending to have

an accident, or even to consciously break the rules, but

it happens every day. Why?

The Bystander Effect

Milgram, a known behavioural scientist, conducted an

experiment in which participants were encouraged to

give others an electric shock when they failed to answer

a question correctly. As the questions progressed, the

strength of the ‘apparent’ electric shock given increased

to what were labelled as, ‘dangerous’ and ‘fatal’ levels.

Participants continued to press the button and ‘shock’

others, despite thinking that they were causing pain or

injury, because they believed that this behaviour was

obviously acceptable to the researcher running the

experiment. They did as they were told.

Milgram’s conclusions were that:

People will often do what they think you want

them to do

People are often unwilling to stop something if

everyone else is carrying on

4

Health and Safety at Work by Deborah Sheath CMIOSH, Director of Risk, Interr Group

Risk Creep

How did these workers ever think that this was safe?

Well, when they started building the Empire State

Building the beam was much closer to the ground!! Not

only do we get used to a risk, once we do, we’ll push it

further and take a greater risk.

So, what should you do?

Look at the behaviour of your employees using this

model, and this will help you identify what action you

need to take to minimise the risk of further incidents.

One of the most important questions to ask is ‘would the

next person do the same thing?’ (the substitution test).

If the answer is yes, then it’s not the employee that’s the

problem.

Conclusions

We have accidents simply because we are human

Punishing errors increases the belief that you will

be blamed for doing something wrong but does not

automatically change behaviour

Learning from accidents means you can attempt to

design them out

At Interr, we have an exceptional record in reacting to

any accidents, incidents and safety issues, and this helps

us ensure an effective 'no blame' safety culture exists. If

you feel that there are improvements that can be made,

either as an Interr employee, or as a client, then please

do not hesitate to contact me at:

deborahsheath@interr.com

5

Message from Client

Director, Yolande Frederick

So what’s all the fuss about?

Most retailers already have lots of anti-theft procedures in place

that customers endure. There are video surveillance cameras

and undercover officers that watch you shop. There are little

plastic devices attached to soft goods called electronic article

surveillance tags (EAS) that must be removed by a salesperson to

prevent an alarm from going off at the exit. There are items

displayed under lock and key that you can’t access without assis-

tance. None of these procedures are consumer friendly, but are

deemed necessary by some retailers for survival.

Are Door Bag Searches Legal?

Yes, as long as the inspection is voluntary. No, if the bag check is

involuntary or coerced. This is a rather fine legal distinction that

is subject to misunderstanding and abuse. Basically, nothing in

the law gives the merchant the right to detain a customer for

the purpose of searching a shopping bag unless there is a reason-

able suspicion of retail theft.

A customer can refuse to have their bag checked and simply walk

out the door past the officer requesting the bag check. Hopefully

this individual has been trained to know that they cannot force

anyone to submit to a bag search without cause. This is

important because the expectation of the officer is that all bag

contents have been purchased. The worst thing that could

happen is that an over enthusiastic officer would forcibly detain

or threaten a customer who refused to comply with the

voluntary search.

How Should the Bag Check Proceed?

The bag check procedure should be routinely handled just like

the till point checkout process. Most customers don’t give it

another thought as long as there isn’t a long delay. It is helpful if

the officer checking the bag is non-threatening in manner and

appearance. Many stores make the mistake of placing someone

at the door that looks and acts like a bouncer with aggressive

body language that sends the wrong message.

I am continually championing a positive approach to loss preven-

tion that is awareness and great customer service. Why aware-

ness, no thief be there opportunist or intentional wants to be

recognised? The initial greeting with eye contact at the door and

around the store send a message that you are alert to a shoplift-

er and welcoming to a genuine customer. I sincerely hope this

goes some way of clarifying the process of bag searches on

purchases made and gives you the confidence to carry them out

in an efficient and professional manner.

Exit Bag Checks

I have receive a number of calls and emails from

Officers request form store management to step

up the bag checks with purchasing customers

due to time of year. There seems to be some

confusion on the process and the legalities of

bag searches for exiting customers. Depending on how the

officer approaches the situation some customers may be of-

fended at having to stop and have their purchases checked off

against the receipt before exiting. Many felt it was a simple

intrusion while others felt it was a total violation of their pri-

vacy. Some customers even felt like they were being falsely

detained, unjustly accused of theft, and wanted to complain.

Not all of the complainants were from overly sensitive

customers. The stores have had complaints from seemingly

intelligent and thoughtful persons with retail experience.

Perhaps, it was the officer’s mannerism that made them feel

forced to submit to the search that was bothersome. The

approach, tone of voice and body language are vital mixture

of ingredients that must be right to ensure the outcome is one

that leave the customer and the client happy.

Bag Check Policy

What these customers are complaining about is a local store

policy where an employee or security officer will check

customer purchases against their receipt. This loss prevention

tactic is usually used in high-ticket or specialty stores who

have experienced large stock loss. This bag check applies to

store purchases only and not to other items a customer might

be carrying. The store management knows that the door bag

check procedure is not customer friendly, but it is a necessary

step.

Can Our Client Do This?

Yes, as long as the procedure is voluntary. The bag check

should occur past the last point of payment solely for the

purpose of verifying the sales transaction that just occurred.

The officer completing the bag check is looking to see that

the cashier correctly charged for all items in the shopping

bag. Once this is done, the officer should thank the customer

and ensure the receipt is returned and the purchase handed

over.

Our clients are free to put procedures in place to help curb

their losses due to theft. It is estimated that £4,699 million

was loss due to retail crime +6.8% higher than the previous

year. These unchecked losses will soon put many retailers out

of business unless they take some proactive step. This bother-

some procedure is very effective in preventing employee

theft, shoplifting, and refund fraud.

Vacancies We are currently recruiting for

the following positions:

RETAIL LOSS PREVENTION

OFFICERS

CORPORATE & HOTEL

SECURITY OFFICERS

COVERT OFFICERS

LICENCED LEISURE DOOR

SUPERVISORS

OPERATION MANAGER

SCHEDULER

CLEANING SUPERVISORS

CLEANERS

If you know anyone that is / will be looking for a full time

or part time security or cleaning position who you feel is a good fit for Interr and has the relevant knowledge and

experience, please ask them to

send their CV to:

recruitment@interr.com

or in writing to our HR department

Employee of the Month

Recommendations

If you are a member of staff, a client, customer, consumer or a

wider stakeholder we would

love to hear from you.

We value your opinion and if you think that a member of the Interr Security team deserves to

win Employee of the Month please send an email with the name of the employee, the

reason for your nomination to:

customerservice@interr.com

Employee of the Month

Congratulations Georgi Fotev

Georgi Fotev joined the company last December, since then he worked

at A&F, Porsche Design, J.Crew, Emporio Armani and recently with the

team at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. His commitment to work

and flexibility are a treat for the operations team and the clients.

Moreover, the feedback we always receive about Georgi is always

highly regarded from the clients and his peers. Recently at the

Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, Georgi was responsible for the front

entrance of the Hair & Make up area, he did his duty on excellent level and he managed

to stop, and catch an imposter with a false credential trying to enter the area, even

after a very lengthy shift.

6

Top Scores

November’s Top Scores:

Tiffany Harrods

Tiffany Royal Exchange

Tiffany Westfield

Ted Baker Cheapside

Congratulations Andre Preve

We would like to congratulate Andre on becoming Employee Of The

Quarter. Andre's appointment into his Supervisory role has been

outstanding. He continues to lead the way on behalf of Interr to

satisfy both client and officers needs. Andre has recently supported

with the very prestigious Victoria Secret Event. His professionalism

and focus over the very long days were duly noted by our client and

the Senior Management.

These are the scores given by our clients for the security teams of each location. These

are based on performance, time keeping, reporting and communication. Feedback is

collected from our clients each month based on performance, timekeeping, reporting

and communication skills.

Well done to this months top scorers at the following locations:

Employee of the Quarter

7

Hygiene Failures leave Wedding Party ill and

food business director banned and fined

The owner of a London catering company has

been banned from running a food business after

a wedding party was served rice contaminated

with E. coli and bacillus bacteria. The local

Environmental Health Officer estimated that the large

majority of the party’s 470 guests had contracted food

poisoning after attending the event in Hertfordshire.

The owner of a London catering company has been banned

from running a food business after a wedding party was

served rice contaminated with E. coli and bacillus bacteria.

The local Environmental Health Officer estimated that the

large majority of the party’s 470 guests had contracted food

poisoning after attending the event in Hertfordshire.

An investigation confirmed that 93 guests who came forward

had contracted food poisoning, which was linked to the

consumption of cooked rice. The rice had been prepared in

advance by the Royal Club restaurant in Greenford.

Tests on the food by a Public Health laboratory found

contamination by both E. coli and bacillus bacteria. It was

judged to be ‘potentially injurious to health and/or unfit for

human consumption’.

The Royal Club was prohibited from providing outside

catering after an inspection of the kitchen revealed ‘serious

food hygiene violations and inadequate food safety manage-

ment procedures’.

The business did not have refrigerated vehicles to safely

transport food. Only one member of staff had been trained

in food safety, and the head chef had not received any food

safety training at all.

A prosecution was brought to Ealing magistrates court on 25

November 2014. B&T Catering Limited (who own the Royal

Club) and their company director Mr B Thapa pleaded guilty

to five offences under the Food Hygiene (England)

Regulations 2006 and a single offence under the General

Food Regulations 2004.

The company was fined a £20,111.44, Mr Thapa was ordered

to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and was banned from

being a director of any company for five years.

Interr Risk Management advise a number of food business opera-

tors around the UK on food safety compliance and can assist you

with auditing, policy development and training if you need it.

Please contact Tony Sheath, Chief Compliance Officer on

tonysheath@interr.com for more advice.

Kitchen Deep Cleans – Hygiene Starts Here

It has always been important, but recently the pressure on food

business operators to have spotless kitchen hygiene has moved

up another gear. The Scores on The Doors initiative is forcing

companies to display how hygienic and safe they are and a large

part of that score is dependent on the cleanliness of where the

food is produced. The increase in “fly on the wall” hidden cam-

era television programmes also love to highlight poor cleaning

and operating practices. Most businesses do not fully recover

from such exposure and many ultimately close.

Interr Cleaning Services work closely with our clients to ensure

that either nightly, in some cases, or periodically in others, our

team of specially trained staff go in after closing and strip back

the layers of grease and grime that result from hard worked

kitchens. We remove the baked on dirt, chemically scrub the

floors, soak and clean the filters and clean behind the heavy

cook line to make sure it looks as good as it can be for the next

morning.

It’s dirty work and best left to the professionals – why not have a

chat to me on sandrazschoke@interr.com to find out more! It

may cost less than you think and just imagine the peace of mind

too!

Message from Tony Sheath,

Chief Compliance Officer

Message from Sandra Zschoke,

Operations Director, Interr Cleaning Services

8

Good communication across any company is essential to business success. A good and constant flow of communication

eliminates barriers, resolves problems, builds stronger workplace relations and ensure all feel heard and valued.

At Interr, we want to ensure that everyone continues to feel comfortable asking questions, speaking to each other and

finding the best way to work and resolve any issues that arise.

The head office team receive a very high volume of calls and emails on a day to day basis, each one being just as

important as the other. To ensure we are all communicating in the most efficient way and that your expectations are met we ask that

you be aware of the following:

SIA Update – New Training Courses for 2015

The SIA have announced that current SIA licence training courses will be updated from 1st January 2015 for any new applicants wishing

to obtain an SIA licence for the first time.

The aim of these changes to the current training courses is to ensure the course contents are up to date and relevant to what is going

on across the security industry today.

The courses that will be updated are: Door Supervision, Security Guarding, Public Space Surveillance (CCTV), Close Protection, Cash &

Valuables in Transit, and Vehicle Immobilisation (in Northern Ireland only).

There is no implication at this time that these changes will effect those who currently hold the relevant SIA licence.

For further information, please visit the SIA website.

To book your place on a workshop, please send an email to Simona Capogna, HR Officer simonacapogna@interr.com

Please include your name and the course(s) you would like to attend. Please note booking is done on a first come first service basis.

Therefore please do not show up for a workshop without a confirmation email from Simona.

Communication

m t m

ctor, Sa not

R co nd F nd Sc

When contacting the office, if the person you wish to speak to is not available, we advise you

ask if there is someone else who can help.

Be aware that if an issue or questions is communicated to the office, it will usually take time to

look into the matter.

If a member of staff needs to call you back a realistic response time will be given. We ask that

you please give us the time to look into your concern.

If you are ever unhappy with information given to you or the information given is unclear, ask

questions.

Date Time Course Name

28th January 2015 14:00 Customer Service

5th February 2015 10:00 Report Writing

24th February 2015 11:00 Security Awareness

Communication

9

Message from the Chief Financial Officer, Chris Dean

Contact Details

Linton House

39-51 Highgate Road

London

NW5 1RT

Fax:

020 7837 2012

Telephone:

020 7837 1221

Select from the following

options:

1. HR & Recruitment

2. Payroll

3. Security Operations

Option 1—Retail & Residential

Option 2—Corporate and

Hospitality

4. Reception & Concierge

5. Risk Management

6. Cleaning Operations

7. Accounts

Email:

info@interr.com

Web Site:

www.interr.com

Informing HMRC and your employer about a change of personal details

Many employees are under the impression, quite understandably, that if they

change their name and / or address and tell payroll and HR then we will advise

HMRC. This is not the case and was never the case, even in the days before we

started sending information in real time (RTI). Personal information changes

are a personal responsibility. If you as the employee give your employer information to be

recorded, it is still your obligation to tell HMRC to change your records. This is even more

important following the introduction of RTI.

With the advent of reporting in real time, aligning information between the employer and

HMRC has gained more significance. When we send in our Full Payment Submissions, HMRC

‘match’ employee information from the FPS to their own records that are stored on the Na-

tional Insurance and PAYE Service (NPS). When the information matches, the information

from our FPS updates the individual’s record on the NPS – no match equals no update or,

even worse, the possibility of the creation of a duplicate employment. The key matching

information is your name, date of birth and National Insurance Number but your address also

pays a part in the matching process and HMRC have always said that inconsistencies between

the employer and the NPS cause the majority of their problems.

Therefore, both employer and employee have a part to play in trying to make this matching

process as smooth as possible. We are therefore advising employees how you can easily up-

date HMRC’s records if there is a change to your personal details. HMRC have an online form

that you, the employee, can use to update your information at HMRC. This will update the

following services in addition to those held on the NPS for tax and NICs:

Construction Industry Scheme

Child Benefit

Child Trust Fund (though individuals will still need to update their account provider

separately)

Student loan (though individuals will still need to tell the Student Loans Company

separately, as HMRC is unable to pass your change details on to them)

Tax credits

Payroll Cut Off Dates

Pay day will continue to be 1st of each month with pay period 11th of

the month to 10th of the following month. For example:

Pay Period Pay Day

Where the pay date falls on a weekend or a bank holiday the pay day

will be on the next working day. Should you have any questions

about your breakdown, wage slip or payment, you should call the of-

fice or make an appointment with Payroll and they will be happy to

help you.

Remember to

‘Like’ us on

Facebook and

to send us a

’Tweet’ on

Twitter.

11th November 14 – 10th December 14 - Paid Friday 2nd January 15

11th December 14 – 10th January 15 – Paid Monday 2nd February 15

11th January 15 - 10th February 15 – Paid Monday 2nd March 15

10

As you are aware from last month’s newsletter it was agreed by the Executive not to hold a staff Christmas Party this year in favour of making donations to our nominated charities. This was extremely well received by our staff who decided instead to hold an office party with a difference. Employees brought their

children along to the office, as well as a contributory festive dish to make this Christmas party a truly

memorable event.

As you can see from the photos we were privileged to be able to host Santa Claus, aka Tony Sheath, who came all the way from the North Pole to bring presents to the children.....and what a wonderful Santa Claus he made

too! Thank you Tony.

Some interesting facts.....

Now that Christmas is well and truly over I would just like

to share some interesting facts about the Christmas tree.

Did you know that an artificial Christmas tree, which has become increasingly popular over the last few years, has a carbon footprint at least ten times larger than a real

tree?

Buying a 6 foot fake tree, made from plastic, is as damaging to the environment as toasting 5,222 slices of bread or driving 120 miles in an average-sized car. A real tree of the same size creates carbon emissions the equivalent of toasting 418 pieces of bread and driving less

than 10 miles.

Corporate Social Responsibility update by Liboria Cannatella, Commercial Director

Interestingly, the carbon footprint during December is 6 per cent higher than in most other months, because of the amount of presents people buy, the extra food they consume and waste, and the extra car trips to visit relatives and

friends. Food for thought!

What a fantastic start to the season William Hall is having! Last month we saw him move up to play in the under 12s due to his outstanding skill and ability, and this month.....well I can tell you that the winning streak continues for the team, with a

3-2 victory away at the weekend.

In addition to the team win, William was awarded the gold award as judged by the opposing team officials which not only takes into account William’s skills but also his attitude and team spirit. Well

done William!

Previously the team played in the Hampshire cup in Portsmouth which saw them march on to the quarter finals following a

thrilling victory over their local opponents on penalties.

William will not be playing in the last match this weekend as he is taking a well-deserved break for Christmas! Happy Christmas to

the team from Interr.

For more information please visit: http://junior-premier.co.uk/

MatchDay/TeamPage.aspx?tid=1226