Preventing Employee Theft

Did you know that 95% of business experience employee theft? Like it or not as a business owner you will have to deal with theft at some point and it is a horrifying feeling when it is from the inside. The feelings of anger towards the offender and the guilt that you could have done more to protect yourself can distract you for a while.
While preventing employee theft can be time consuming, the costs and time involved truly outweigh the costs of having to recover from the theft. It is estimated that employee theft costs businesses $52 billion per year.
Here are a few ideas to keep your businesses money flowing where it should be.
• Policies and procedures NEED TO BE written and carried out. Your procedures should always include some kind of double check system and audit by another employee.
• Alterations of ANY photocopied documents should be filed with the ORIGINAL document and signed by the employee making the alterations.
• Employees in close relationships with suppliers could be taking kickbacks. One of your policies should include specifically if and how much of a kickback an employee is allowed to take for themselves and when they have to surrender it to the company.
• Inventory (including office supplies) should be checked by someone other than the person doing the ordering. Checks should also be done according to how often supplies come and go.
• Checks written to cash should always require YOUR authorized signature and not a stamp. This should be included in your P&P manual.
Disorganized operations in any department can cause a potential area for theft. The more organized your business is, the less likely you will fall victim to internal crime. If you are unsure about how to start implementing policies and procedures call a professional.