As employers, most of us trust our employees. However, as much as we wish it wasn't the case, employee theft is a fairly common occurrence. In fact, it is estimated that businesses lose an average of 5 percent of their annual revenue due to employee theft. Some employees may embezzle money from the register; others may attempt to overcharge random customers. In addition, some employees are dishonest about their mileage and travel expense, another example of theft in the workplace.
The good news is there are a number of practices business owners can implement to discourage theft. Read on to learn 6 effective tactics to stop sticky-fingered staffers!
1. Perform Employee Background Checks
One of the key things that you, as a business owner, can do to prevent employee theft is to hire responsible employees. For that reason, you should consider implementing a system for performing background checks on every potential employee. Employee background are especially important for companies whose employees will be handling high-value merchandise or have access to company financial records or accounts.
2. Segregate Employee Duties
Since opportunity is one of the primary factors of theft, you can deter it in the workplace by assigning different tasks to your employees. For example, the employee who checks the mail should not be the same person who is collecting payments from customers. The person who reconciles the bank statements should not be the same person who writes the checks to vendors and so one.
3. Establish a Code of Ethics and Conduct
Every company should have a set of ethics and conduct. The code of ethics and conduct should be documented and covered extensively during employee orientation. They should also be a signed copy in every employee’s file. There are a number of websites that have templates for codes of conduct. Every year, the code of conduct should be revisited. You may need to add new material to it. Having a set of ethics will help employees understand exactly what is expected of them.
4. Get on Top of Your Inventory
If you are unable to accurate account of what you have in stock versus what you have on the shelves, it will be really challenging to prevent losses. Fortunately, the integrated inventory capabilities of point of sale technology from brands like Intuit and Stitch Labs can easily provide you with total control of your inventory without the need to have employees devote time to counting it physically. That way, you’ll be notified immediately if something turns up missing.
5. Establish a Good Relationship With Your Employees
A large majority of employees that engage in workplace theft say it is because they “feel like they are overworked and under-appreciated.” This is why you should always strive to establish a good relationship with your employees. Engage your employees with a one-on-one meeting and encourage them come see you at any time to talk to you about any issues that they may be having. Furthermore, you should also encourage your employees to use their vacation time.
6. Recognize the Signs of Employee Theft
In many cases, there are detectable signs of employee theft if you know what to look for. Employees who prefer to stay late and work unsupervised or take their work home may be possible suspects, especially if they are also overprotective about their work space. In addition, unexplained debt and disappearing financial records are also signs to look out for.
