In fact, missing merchandise can just as easily, and just as likely, an employee theft problem.  Yep, you heard right.  Employee theft is a reality.  Internal theft, the retail term for employee theft, is generally the #1 shrink factor in retail stores.  Just like customers, employees often don’t want to pay for their products either.  So how do you know if the missing inventory is due to shoplifting or internal theft?

 The answer is you have to conduct an employee theft investigation.  One of the first ways to conduct an employee theft investigation is to track when the product goes missing.  To do this you will need to conduct “mini-inventories” or cycle counts, as they are commonly known, every day you work.  By doing this you will narrow down when the product is going missing.  (Thieves tend to stick to the same product group so you won’t have to count every item in the store; just what you have noticed is missing.)  You can then compare the dates of loss to your employee schedule to see if the same worker is present at every, or almost every, loss date.  This is not an automatic indicator of guilt as more than one person can be stealing the same product, but it will give you a starting point.

Next, is the tedious part.  Surveillance.  It is best if you have a Loss Prevention Agent that works for the company as this is time consuming.  There are also companies who have trained LP agents for hire that can help complete an employee theft investigation on a case by case basis.  You will need to observe the employee for several days to see if you can catch him/her in the act.  Hand in the cookie jar is the best way to avoid liability.  I also suggest package checks (especially when you think you have something).  The employee may not be expecting this and it’s a great way to get the evidence you need.

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

I can already hear the questions.  How are voids an employee theft issue?  Isn’t that just a problem with customer satisfaction or training?  The answer is “D” all of the above.  Voids are a necessary evil.  We would all like for customers to buy everything they come to the register with, but sometimes they change their minds about certain items or there is a problem at the payment time and the whole order has to be voided.  The ability to do a void is often a source of employee theft, also known as internal theft.  Here are some tips on how to do an employee theft investigation into voids.

Each day you need to review the voids from the previous day.  This is best done if you have reporting software that can show you all of the voids easily and can break them down into frequency by cashier.  If you don’t have this type of software this can be done by hand going through the journal tape.

Internal theft can occur with voids in a couple of ways.  First, employee theft can occur by the employee voiding an item or two off for a friend and family member while still putting it in the bag.  From video it looks like the item was scanned properly; however, the reality is it just got stolen.

The second way employee theft can occur is voiding the whole transaction.  A cashier may ring up a legitimate customer, accept the cash and then void the transaction.  Now the register has “extra” money that they can steal and it won’t show on your daily over/short report because the register thinks the transaction never happened.

Employee theft investigations are necessary in protecting your business.  Unfortunately, internal theft is a real thing so it is worth the time to “dig in” and see what is going on.

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

I hope the answer is “yes”.  Statistically, employee theft, also known as internal theft, is the highest causal factor for loss in retail.  I know we all like to believe that cash losses are just “mistakes” and that we can do some re-training to fix the problem.  You may be right.  Some cash loss is due to mistakes being made.  Unfortunately, it can often be due to internal theft.  So how do you know the difference?  Easy, you have to conduct an employee theft investigation every time you have a cash loss to find out what the cause is.

Employee theft investigations can be simple or complex.  It really just depends on the situation.  For cash, you should start your employee theft investigation by creating an Over/Short tracker.  One way to do this is create a spreadsheet with all of the employees who run a register listed on the left hand column going vertically across the page.  Then you make a row of dates horizontally across the top.  Every time you have a shortage, go ahead and make a mark by each cashier on the till under the date the shortage occurred.  If you do have a thief, you will start to see a pattern develop over time as you will only have one common denominator on the tills.

Another way to complete and employee theft investigation on cash is to do a careful review of the journal roll for that register.  You are looking for a few things.

1) You are looking for a mistake that may show that it was an error and not theft.

2) You are looking for high employee theft indicators such as: No Sales, Refunds, Voids, etc.

You should then use your camera system to “spot check” a few suspicious transactions to see if that is where the money went missing.

Internal theft investigations on cash often take time and patience, but it’s well worth the investment if it means removing a dishonest employee.

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