Five Tips for Stopping Employee Theft

You might put efforts into stopping shoplifters, burglars and other criminals who attempt to steal from your business, but are you do you also keep an eye out for employee theft? Employee theft and fraud are real problems that many employers fail to protect themselves against.

A 2012 study showed that the amount stolen annually from U.S. businesses by employees was approximately $50,000,000,000. That same study showed that employee theft accounted for 42.7 % of retail inventory shrinkage. In comparison, shoplifting only accounted for 35.6 %. These statistics show how big of a problem employee theft can be.

Employee theft can come in many forms, from a retail worker stealing merchandise to an accountant defrauding your company.

So what can you do to reduce employee theft? Here are a few tips:

Carefully screen employees, even if they are part-time or seasonal staff. You won’t be able to weed all potential thieves out by doing background checks and reference checks, but you will reduce the likelihood of someone with a history of theft working for you.

Create a positive work environment where employees feel valued and part of a team. Many times, employees steal because they are upset with their employers or they feel as if they are not receiving adequate compensation from the company. Creating an environment with clear communication and engagement will help reduce these types of incidents.

Implement internal controls to reduce fraud. Develop policies that ensure that someone is always overseeing anyone who deals with money or financial records. Employees will be significantly less likely to attempt to steal from your company when they know that their actions are being monitored by someone else in the organization.

Design an anonymous reporting system. Honest employees don’t want to see theft happening in the workplace any more than you do. However, they might be worried about retaliation from coworkers if they report this theft. They might not want to develop a reputation as “a snitch.” For these reasons, create a system where employees can report theft anonymously and investigate these reports as you receive them.

Implement access controls. Not every employee needs to have access to every area in your company. You can utilize locked doors and security gates to control access throughout your building. For example, lock the door to your supply closet and only give keys to those who need to access this area regularly. Access control gates can be used to block off sections of your property so that only those who need access are able to gain access.

Not only does this allow you to restrict access, but it also gives you the ability to know who entered the area if there is any theft. For example, if you have 50 employees and something is stolen from the supply room that only five employees have access to, you can reduce your investigation to only these five people.

Preventing employee theft is important. By taking the appropriate steps and securing your valuables, you can be very effective at reducing these crimes.

Additional security tips , download our 10 Critical Points to Securing your Shop, your Employees, and your Goods eGuide.
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