I have been a loss prevention investigator for close to 30 years now. In the course of those years I have conducted over 2300 interviews and interrogations of employees suspected of theft.
There never seems to be a lack of people that feel like they can beat the system. Some do. Most do not, if management is not asleep at the switch. Many times business managers feel like they are “to busy” to consider employee theft. Many are afraid to even approach it. Employee theft is no different than any other business problem. You have to meet it head on and push your way through.
I remember a case where a store manager told me that he didn’t have any staff that would steal “from him”. He had convinced himself that everyone either loved him or were so afraid of him that they would not steal. What made this so incredible is that store paperwork clearly showed that something was really wrong in his refunds.
I conducted an investigation and at the end of two days six employees went to jail for felony theft. They stole through refund fraud, merchandise theft and outright cash theft. The manager who was of the “old school” didn’t last much after that.
My personal opinion is that at any given time one out of ten of your employees are stealing. Most credible studies clearly show that employee theft is higher than that.
But the real issue here is management. If the people in these positions are not qualified, trained or the company does not have enforced policy and procedures in place then there will be inventory shrinkage and theft.
When ever I am giving a talk at a regional or national conference or even for a client I will inevitably have some one come up to me and in an almost challenging fashion say that “I don’t have people that steal working for ME” As I am patiently listening I am thinking how naïve this person is and how long will it be before they need a loss prevention investigator ?
For more information about loss prevention consultants or employee theft contact us at loss prevention investigator or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta
