Unfortunately, many retailers are asking the question, “Where did it all go?”.  The answer is disturbing but true, you paid someone to take it.  Employee theft is one of the primary reasons retailers experience millions in losses each year.  It seems comical really to think you actually pay someone to take advantage of your business.  Employee theft can be devastating and often the extent of the damage is not known unto it is too late to correct.  In my experience employee theft has caused many stores to go out of business as they were simply not able to produce profits amid the extensive and enormous amount of internal theft.

It is an elaborate game of cops and robbers and unfortunately there are more robbers than cops.  Internal theft continues to rise at an alarming rate.  Employers are using every opportunity they can find to take from their employers.  In an environment where consumers are spending less, business can not allow profit to simply walk out of their stores.  Internal theft has to be addressed and corrected, if a business is going to continue to be viable.  Employers must become aware of the many ways in which employees choose to take from their employers. The way in which transactions are conducted at the point of sale registers allow employees to take what they want without being noticed.

An effective employee theft investigation can help set an employer’s mind at ease and all without alarming a suspected dishonest employee.  Loss prevention professionals conduct thousands of internal investigations every month and are able to identify theft and resolve the matter quickly. An effective and well handled employee theft investigation does more than identify a dishonest employee; it helps prevent other employees from thinking that they can take from their employer. It is imperative if an employer has a suspicion that employee theft may be occurring at their business that they begin an employee theft investigation immediately. This will prevent you from having to answer the unfortunate question of, “Where did it all go?”

For more information on employee theft , employee theft investigation or internal contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

In the retail industry external theft or shoplifting as it is commonly known is a part of doing business. Anyone who has worked in the retail industry has dealt with or actually seen a shoplifting incident during their career.  But the one problem that every retail industry dreads is internal theft. This issue causes retailer to deal now with employee theft problems. It is bad enough to worry about those individuals that come from the outside to steal, but now you have to conduct Employee theft investigation inside your organization.

You now have the employee’s that you count on to give proper customer service and represent your organization are now the subject of Employee theft investigation. During my career I have conducted hundreds on internal theft investigations. Most of the employee theft subjects are new employee’s that have just started, but you have those employees that have been with the organization for many years. So the first question that I always ask is why? Why after so many years would you steal from the company the answer varies? But the one constant during the employee theft investigation is that they didn’t think they would get caught.

Many internal theft issues can be prevented by following the safeguards that have been put in place. The minute these policies are not followed the chance for an employee theft incident to happen is imminent. So anytime you think that you can break protocol to finish your job faster. When you don’t take the time to log down who enters a security cage or who has the keys to that cage. How much money have you just cost your organization by not following policy.

    For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia

Employee theft like external theft is an unfortunate reality for the retail professional.  Many small business owners and large corporations are looking to new and traditional methods to reduce their exposure to internal theft.   Although, technology increases and new methods of detecting employee theft are developed, traditional employee theft investigations can be an effective method of removing this element from you business.

The traditional employee theft investigation aims to not only remove the individual form your operation, but also attempts to identify any control failures or preventable loopholes in your business.  These employee theft investigations usually involve the work of the entire loss prevention and management teams.  The investigations most often begin with a tip, an observed behavior, a cash shortage or just general suspicion of an employee.  When the loss prevention department receives this information they begin their employee theft investigation.  Commonly, the in store loss prevention team begins by monitoring and working with the store management team to effectively schedule the employee in question.  This gives the team the opportunity to watch the employee and identify how they are causing a loss to the organization.  This not only provides the method, but also what controls the store needs to change to prevent these actions in the future.  Once the internal theft is identified, the employee theft investigation moves on to the interview.

The internal theft interview is a controlled employee theft discussion.  This allows the loss prevention professional to discuss the situation surrounding the loss and allows the individual engaged in the employee theft to provide a reason why.  The interview often results in corrective action, up to and including termination or prosecution.

While most large organization have a department that is solely dedicated to deal with the internal theft issues, smaller businesses do not.  So what is the small business owner to do?  There are many organizations that can provide this service and an effect price.  This service can have a large impact on your business and improve your general moral.

For more information on employee theft , employee theft investigation or internal theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia