We saw this article on Inc.com
Four in 10 Managers Have Fired Employees for Theft
Office supplies, money, and merchandise are the most frequently stolen items, according to a new survey.
From: Inc.com | September 1, 2006 By: Leslie Taylor
While only one in 10 workers admit stealing from their employers, close to 40% of hiring managers say they have fired an employee for theft at the office, according to a recent survey.The survey, conducted by CareerBuilder.com, found that the most commonly purloined items were office supplies (15%), money (14%), and merchandise (11%).Employers and those in the human-resources industry say employee theft represents a significant challenge for business owners, who often do not have the resources to devote to oversight.”I spend much of my time interacting with small-business owners,” said Michael Alter, president of SurePayroll, a Glenview, Ill.-based firm that manages payroll services for small businesses. “I’ve heard more than a few stories about employees walking off with inventory, tools, petty cash, stamps, etc.”Kevin Marasco, vice president of marketing for Vurv Technology, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based company that provides Web-based tools for workforce management, suspects the estimate of workplace theft may be slightly inflated. But he noted that theft is not an uncommon problem for Vurv’s small-business clients.
“We find shrinkage to be a top business challenge with our smaller clients, especially for [businesses] with a large percentage of hourly workers,” Marasco said.
More employees in the health-care, IT, and manufacturing industries admitted to stealing at the office than employees in retail, sales, and hospitality, according to the CareerBuilder survey.
Consequences to employees caught stealing vary depending upon the company. According to the survey, 45% of hiring managers would automatically fire someone discovered stealing, while 7% would not fire the thief. Some 48% of hiring managers said they did not have a clear-cut policy regarding employee theft and would decide whether or not to fire an employee caught stealing based on the object stolen and the situation.
However, businesses can also make efforts to prevent such a situation from occuring in the first place. “If an envelope full of petty cash is left on a desk and it’s stolen by an employee, the employee isn’t the only one to blame,” Alter said. “The person who left the cash on the desk shares some of the blame. Investments in theft prevention — security cameras, locking desk drawers — can be quite cheap.”
One of the most important investments in theft prevention can also be an effective screening process for new employees. Background checks are imperative, according to Alter.
“When it comes to hiring, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” he said.
Yet, for small businesses, evaluating employees can be a challenge. “They lack the people, processes and technology dedicated to thoroughly evaluate new hires and manage employee performance,” Marasco said. “This can result in the hiring of workers who slip through the cracks in terms of ideal fit and qualifications, and who could have a higher likelihood to steal.”Providing employees with adequate compensation and improving morale can also remove the incentive to steal. “One of the biggest reasons employees steal from the companies they work for is they feel the company owes them,” Marasco said. “Either because they are underpaid, underappreciated, or simply disengaged from mission of the company and have no personal stake in its success.”
If an employee feels like a valued part of the company, he or she is less likely to steal, Alter added.
“Treating employees with respect,” he said, “deters theft better than any lock and key.”
A friend of ours who often specializes in research about employee theft remarked that at least thirty percent of your work staff is willing to steal. Another fifteen to twenty percent are giving it thought, and the rest of your workforce may become demoralized when they believe management is doing little or nothing to thwart what amounts collectively to billions of dollars, annually. Not only does employee theft hurt your business because of loss and shrinkage, it serves to damage the morale of the honest workers who can claim they feel violated.
While pre-employment background checks will never guarantee against theft in the workplace, they are still the most cost effective preventative. Video cameras and other monitoring technologies have their place, but theft prevention starts with a background check. The criminal background check is probably the most important search you can run. There are several kinds of criminal background checks; the Nationwide, Statewide and the County Criminal. Each one has its place in any pre-employment screening campaign.
Corra also suggest the retail theft database check. This will tell you when an employee has been shoplifting or has possibly committed infractions at previous place sof employment. Usually, when a former employee is listed on the retail database check, the employer or shop owner wanted to signal this was not an honest or reliable person, but didn’t wish to press charges.
We fnd the credit check may often reveal more than good or bad credit. The credit check may show vulnerability, since someone deep in debt may be more desperate and therefore more susceptible to stealing proprietary and intellectual property, credit card and client databases. These are files you can ill afford to lose, yet alone surrender to a disreputable competitor.
Corra strongly suggests you first run a Social Security Trace with every job candidate. This will not only validate the social security number and verify it belongs to your candidate, it will also provide a list of past references, which is helpful in other searches.
In any event, employee theft is no joke. Take advantages of precautionary measures that are provided to every employee. Don’t wait until it’s too late or you find yourself missing more than a few pencils. Employees have been known to steal large quanitities of inventory and sell the goods at swap meets or to dishonest brokers.
So before you install monitors and cameras, etc., run a background check on every candiate, and sometimes even on current employees. It’s the most cost effective means of prevention and it will help offset violence, substance abuse and other troubles in the work place that can cause you, the employer, serious liability issues.
Check them out before you hire.
