Is Your Job Worth a Jelly Bean?

Employee theft can be detrimental to a company. Not only does it cost money through product loss, but employees that have a tendency to steal from their employers are far less likely to be productive. Employee theft investigations can be difficult as well. Cameras typically have to be moved to strategic places prior to any event. Then investigators have to hope that future employee thefts will occur where the cameras have been placed.

 All of this is a long shot with far too many variables. If the employee catches wind of the investigation, quits, or just decides that they do not want to steal again the investigation is typically over.  

 A few years ago, a company that I worked for hired a young individual as a seasonal employee in the electronics department. At first he did a good job and was well liked by customers. However, it was not long before we began to find internal theft in the backroom. At first we did not suspect him until his behavior began to change as well. He started showing up late to work, leaving early, and working under the influence. The internal theft in the backroom began to increase and an employee theft investigation was opened on the individual in question. I continued to watch him for a period of a couple weeks with no success. We moved cameras in hopes that we might be able to see something, nothing ever did. I started to think that he realized what we were doing and decided to take a break. One night I was doing a standard observation on him, not expecting anything to happen. All of a sudden the employee walked by our jelly bean dispenser, filled his hand with jelly beans and began to eat them.

 Finally, we had him. Although we did not have him on anything big, the go ahead by higher ups was given and an integrity interview was approved. We scheduled the interview multiple times, but the individual quite showing up to work. At least the employee theft was taken care of and all future loss from that individual had stopped.      

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