The Cardinal Group has announced an exclusive European partnership with the US consulting and training company, Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates (WZ). The agreement, which comes into effect on April 16, will enable The Cardinal Group to expand the provision of WZ’s non-confrontational interviewing techniques training. It’s used by businesses to identify those responsible for internal fraud and dishonesty; Cardinal aim to bring it into new sectors including banking and hospitality, and into HR with the training module that is specific for human resources professionals.
The Cardinal Group has had exclusive distribution rights in the UK since 2009 and during this time, has trained more than 350 people from many of the UK’s largest retailers on how to obtain the truth through legally acceptable interviewing techniques. Through a non-confrontational approach to interviewing, the WZ method employs a number of strategies to enable businesses to obtain admissions of guilt or innocence from those suspected of dishonesty. Interviewers to gain admissions of guilt or innocence – in a shorter time – to cases of internal fraud, the firms say.
Jason Trigg, CEO of The Cardinal Group, said: “We’ve worked in close partnership with WZ since 2009 and have been delighted with the success we’ve seen over the last three years. The practices have obviously been extremely popular in the US for some time and we are very pleased with the reception from the UK retail industry, the first sector that we introduced the training to.
“Fraud is an issue for businesses across any industry but in a period of considerable financial pressure, the risk can increase for a number of reasons. Whilst there are many different products, technologies and services available on the market to help businesses identify internal fraud, once a case is uncovered, it is important for these companies to carry out internal investigations within the boundaries of the law, using techniques that do not contravene employee rights. With WZ, we have identified a niche in the UK market and we’re looking forward to replicating this success both across Europe and within a host of new industry sectors which we believe could hugely benefit from techniques of this kind.”
Chris Norris CFI., Director – Webinar and CBT Training – for Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates will be presenting alongside Gary Tattersall, Regional Loss Prevention Manager at Wilkinsons and Ian Noble, Divisional Security Manager at Travis Perkins PLC in the Loss Prevention Strategy Conference Stream at The Retail Fraud Event on April 19 in Hammersmith, west London.
Retailers will share their experiences of putting the approach into practice and the benefits of W-Z.
