There are numerous instances in business when it is necessary to perform the employee theft investigation.  The fact is – employees steal … a lot!! – this is the distressing reality. Research reveals internal theft (also called employee theft) accounts for 50-70% of retail shrink.

One of the most difficult aspects of investigating employees is the trust factor – we want to trust our employees.  It is especially troublesome to accept that one or more employees are stealing from you. Conducting an employee theft investigation is imperative when money and merchandise start missing in order to uncover internal theft.

There are several things to do during the employee theft investigation.  Reviewing reports is first on the agenda.  Many losses can be solved by tracking cash over and cash shorts, reviewing refund and void trends, and researching ordering and inventory change histories. 

Cameras are great instruments for catching and verifying employee theft. We turn to cameras if reviewing reports does not produce results.  Either by standard cameras on the sales floor or covert cameras in offices, cameras can indisputably verify the identity of the thief. 

Unfortunately, there are times when none of these methods work.  I have found myself at wits end on several occasions with strong suspicion of an employee, but no actual proof.  This is where an Integrity Shop can be of great benefit.

The employer can create a circumstance or set of circumstances providing an employee the opportunity to “do the right thing” in order to assess a suspected employee’s integrity; thus demonstrating integrity or lack thereof. 

One may put extra money into the till or drop a gift card by the register and then watch cameras to see what that employee does with the money or gift card.  The employee should turn in the money or gift card since it does not belong to him or her. The employee proves whether he or she can be trusted by what they choose to do with the money or card.

If the employee keeps the money or card, they have given the employer the leverage needed when confronting the dishonesty as well as the other shortages in their work station.

For more information about employee theft investigation, employee theft, and internal theft please contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia.

The most sought after item that dishonest employees like to steal is cash. Unlike merchandise, cash can be used anywhere and cash is often the easiest item to steal.  It is small and easily hidden, employees handle it all day, and cash has no sensor tags applied.

Do you know if internal theft of cash is taking place at your business?  What are you doing to uncover this distinctively challenging form of employee theft and put an end to it?

There are a variety of situations and circumstances in which employee theft, involving cash, is likely to occur.  There are also a number of considerations when conducting the employee theft investigation around these losses. 

The most uncomplicated scheme is simply taking money directly from the drawer.  The effect of this style of internal theft is blatantly obvious the next day when the accounting department discloses that money is missing from the drawer. 

It is most effective to begin the investigation by reviewing “No Sale” functions when conducting an employee theft investigation.  Most associates do not take cash during an actual transaction because of the witnesses (i.e. the customer) present. 

Instead, the employee waits until it appears that no one is observing to conduct a “No Sale” function, and then pockets the cash.  The employee wrongly believes that the absence of witnesses enables him to hide his or her actions.  In reality this type of theft is usually quite simple to pinpoint.

Another scheme to take cash is conducting voids.  This is more difficult to apprehend, but it can be accomplished with due diligence. The dishonest associate will void a transaction and take the cash in this particular form of employee theft sting.  Because the register now assumes the sale did not happen, it will then not show short since the cash “should not have been there” according to the register. 

Prevention and discovery requires that the employer routinely watch for associates conducting a lot of voids followed by “No Sales”.  Since they voided the transaction the cashier has to use the “No Sale” function to open the drawer and make change for the customer. 

The employer can also pull random voids and review the video to see if the merchandise stays in the store or, if in fact, the customer takes it out of the store.  The cashier is stealing from you if the customer takes the item out of the store.

There is no easy solution for internal theft; however, a thorough employee theft investigation helps eliminate problems and prevent future loss.

For more information about employee theft, employee theft investigation and internal theft please contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia.

In fact, we just had a case of employee theft where the employee was ringing up only one chair, but a stack of four chairs were going out the door. They had figured that we would not notice what was going on because he was ringing something up on the register.

He also figured that if we did notice a shortage of chairs, he could say that he didn’t know and it was a mistake. To a certain extent, that was true. When we did notice the shortage, we first thought it was an operational error and not internal theft. Perhaps if we had trained the employee to recognize how to properly sell those chairs, we would have prevented that shortage.

As we continued researching the chair shortages (because there was more than one) we realized that this employee was actually letting more merchandise go out he door unpaid. We knew then that we needed to resolve this by conducting a full on employee theft investigation.

The same “customer” came back for four more chairs, and some dishes, and some napkins, and some candles, all going out the door for the price of one chair. As it turns out, this “customer” was the brother of the employee. They had a new house and were making an outdoor dining area. The employee decided to take advantage of a known operational issue and thought he would slide right under the radar with his employee theft.

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

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