Shanu Singh Guliani

Tips to Preventing Employee Theft
May 23, 2007

While a few number of staff members will admit stealing from their employers, many have fired an employee for theft at an office, retail store, etc.

A survey, conducted by CareerBuilder.com, found that the most commonly pocketed items were office supplies (15%), money (14%), and merchandise (11%). As a small business owner, employee theft represents a significant challenge and unfortunately, I often do not have the resources to devote to oversight.

Some common types of employee theft I’ve noticed over the years:

• Taking merchandise
• Forging or destroying receipts
• Stealing small amounts of money
• Shipping/billing scams
• Exaggerating or fabricating expenses

To help protect your businesses from employee theft consider the following recommendations.

1. Don’t think well-paid employees are not less likely to steal. The opportunity to steal is more important than their need for money.
2. Have a clear written policy on employee ethics, including theft, signed by each employee. Your policy should include a statement that employees caught stealing will be prosecuted, rather than settling for simple restitution and an apology.
3. Separate employee duties. No one staff member should be responsible for both recording and processing a transaction.
4. Access to physical and financial assets and information, as well as accounting systems, should be restricted to authorized employees—this includes passwords to areas of your POS.
5. Careful hiring processes, such as completing background checks, including police reports.
6. Keep control over inventory by possibly instituting a perpetual inventory system: having the staff, check finished goods and raw materials every day instead of only once at the end of the month.

Theft by a trusted employee happens in small towns and big cities. The most important way to deter employee theft is to be aware and prepared for the fact that it happens.

Posted by Shanu Singh Guliani on May 23, 2007 | Comments (0)