Tools · Associate training
Safety and shrink poster rotation schedule
Steps
- Name one owner for the calendar. Put one person's name on the poster schedule and write the twelve hang dates on the store calendar. A program with no owner stalls the first month nobody remembers whose turn it is.
- Walk the three locations. Photograph what hangs now at the time clock, the breakroom wall, and the back of the stockroom door. Take down anything older than a month.
- Pick next month's two topics. Take one safety behavior and one shrink behavior from the rotation table. Adjust the order for your format; a late-night store moves the robbery and cash rows to the top.
- Draft one behavior, one image, one line. Write the behavior as an action the associate can take on this shift. The image shows that behavior on a floor that looks like yours. Cut everything else.
- Add the reporting path before the artwork. Print the hotline number and the words tell your manager on both drafts before anyone reviews the design.
- Run the pre-print checklist. The LP director and the safety manager both sign. A draft that fails one item goes back to the designer. Keep the signed checklist with the print order.
- Record the baseline. Write this month's hotline and incident counts for the two topics into the safety log before the posters go up.
- Hang on the published date. One poster per frame, with a blank inch around it. Take the old poster down the same day and file it in a labeled folder.
- Ask at the last huddle of the month. Ask the crew which behavior the poster asks for. Record the answer in the safety log next to the report count.
- Compare and decide. Compare the month's report count against the baseline. A topic most of the room cannot say gets a second month with a different image.
This schedule is the printable half of what makes a retail safety awareness poster actually work. It pairs one safety behavior with one shrink behavior for each month, maps the three places to hang them, and holds every draft to a pre-print checklist. Print the year in one run.
How to use it
Shrink posters usually come from LP and safety posters from operations or HR, on different schedules, competing for the same square of cork. This table puts both on one calendar with one owner. Each row is the single behavior the poster asks for, and it doubles as the line the manager reads that month from the five-minute huddle card. Use one template for both posters so associates learn where to look for the behavior line and the hotline number. The internal rows ask an associate to notice a coworker and report it, the harder message, and draw on employee theft awareness training. Every external shrink or violence poster carries the same guidance: observe, report, never confront, never chase, the floor standard in the repeat offender policy. More at the associate training hub.
The printable
The twelve-month rotation:
| Month | Safety poster: the one behavior | Shrink poster: the one behavior | Shrink focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | Keep register cash low and drop excess to the safe every hour. | Ring every item, including your own purchases, at the front register. | Internal |
| February | Step away from an angry customer and call the manager. | See concealment, note the description, tell a manager. Never confront or chase. | External |
| March | Block a spill with a cone before you walk away from it. | Every refund needs a receipt and a second set of eyes. | Internal |
| April | Keep the back door closed and locked between deliveries. | Count the delivery against the invoice before you sign. | External |
| May | Use the cart for heavy loads and ask for help above shoulder height. | Log every markdown and damage-out with your name. | Internal |
| June | Two people close the store, every night. | Report groups working one aisle from the register phone, never from the floor. | External |
| July | Report near misses before the end of your shift. | Friend and family discounts need a manager override every time. | Internal |
| August | Keep sightlines clear at the register and the front door. | Greet every customer at the door and report anything odd. Do not follow. | External |
| September | During a robbery, comply and observe, then call once the person has left. | Only the assigned cashier counts that drawer. | Internal |
| October | Report parking lot lighting outages the same night. | Check the receipt date and the item on every return, then call a manager for anything unusual. | External |
| November | Keep fire exits and aisles clear of holiday stock. | Watch high-shrink displays at peak hours and report. Never approach. | External |
| December | Two associates for late-night trash runs and lot walks. | Count what you see at inventory and report what you cannot find. | Internal |
The placement map: one frame and one poster at the time clock, one on the breakroom wall by the microwave, and one on the back of the stockroom door at eye level, each with a blank inch around it. Nothing goes in the corridor by the office, where nobody stops.
The pre-print checklist, signed for every draft:
- One behavior, written as an action the associate can take on this shift
- One image that shows the behavior itself, with a person in it, in a store that looks like ours
- One line of text, readable from across the breakroom
- Hotline number and the words “tell your manager” printed on the poster
- For any external shrink or violence topic, observe and report language only, with no confronting or following
- Topic matches this month’s row on the rotation table and the huddle script
- No policy quotes, disclaimers, or logos larger than the image
- Hanging location and take-down date written on the back
- Signed by the LP director and the safety manager
Common mistakes
- The committee poster: every stakeholder adds a line, and the result asks for four behaviors in three fonts. One person approves it.
- The mood board: good artwork, no phone number. A poster with no reporting path does nothing.
- Two posters in one frame, or last month’s still hanging next to this month’s. Take-down is the same day as hang-up.
- The hint at heroics: any poster that suggests stopping a thief creates the injury it was meant to prevent.
What to do this week
- Walk the breakroom, the time clock, and the back door, photograph every poster hanging now, and take down anything older than a month.
- Pick next month’s two topics from the rotation table and draft each as one behavior, one image, one line.
- Add the hotline number and “tell your manager” to both drafts before any artwork review.
- Write this month’s hotline and incident counts for those two topics into the safety log as the baseline.
- Name one owner for the poster calendar and put the twelve print dates on the store calendar.