Employee Theft Is A More Serious Problem Than You Realize – Atlanta Georgia

The average employee thief steals $1,876 per incident compared to the average shoplifter who steals on average $226 per incident. Why is this? Most retailers are shocked when thy see these numbers some are even in denial. The words ring out “my employees wouldn’t do that to ME”. Oh yes they would and do!

I have personally conducted over 2300 investigations of employees involved in employee theft . They do steal and will steal anything they see as of value to them. This could be paper, pens or other office supplies for their kid’s school work (that’s not so bad…is it?) to your merchandise, cash and time.

Employees steal, including some of yours, sorry but that is just fact.

Oh man that is depressing now what do you do? Well, first off keep in mind I am not saying all employees. But at an average theft of $1,876 how many bad ones can you afford?

The solution begins with better management and controls. Remember those famous words of President Regan “trust but verify”. You must verify employee’s work as a routine. Look into a little here and a little there. Employees should believe that you look at everything. Keep them guessing.

But keep in mind you will still have people that will try to steal and some will succeed in employee theft . What do you do when you suspect employee theft ? The old school and macho approach is to investigate it yourself. Have you ever heard the analogy “a person who acts as their own attorney in court has a fool for a client”?

Another failed method is to just fire them. In that case you should first ask your self several questions: Who taught them to do this and is that person still employed here? How much have they really stolen from me? You would be shocked in most of these answers. Are you trained to look for employee theft ?

Get professional help. OK, yes that is what we do. But we are VERY good at it. However, more importantly you can waste your time and money doing it yourself and get poor results because it is not what you do for a living. Or we can fix the current employee theft problem and put you back into the drivers seat then help you to correct the situation so it does not occur that way again.

For more information about employee theft or internal theft or corporate fraud investigation or corporate fraud investigator contact us at employee theft investigation or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Statistics from Global Retail Theft Barometer 2010