Seasonal workers causing employee theft in Atlanta Georgia

Tis the season for greetings, gifts and theft.  As hard as it is to swallow, the holidays seem to bring out the worst in employees, especially those seasonal employees we hire to handle the increase in customer traffic.  Employee theft (also known as internal theft) between now and the new year will be the highest of the year so I recommend you start now keeping a close eye on your workers.

When I conduct an employee theft investigation I always try to find out “why” the theft occurred.  Here is what I have found about holiday theft.  One, everyone is under increased pressure to come up with extra money for Christmas gifts.  Many individuals (especially now) are living paycheck to paycheck so this increase in funds may not be readily available.  With that said kids expect a visit from Santa and the spouse deserves something nice under the tree so that forces generally honest employees into a tough spot.

The second major theme is that seasonal help has no loyalty to a company.  Our regular employees need the company to perform well so they keep jobs, benefits, 401K’s, etc.  Seasonal help has no such long term use for the company.  They are there to get their holiday money and whatever else they can get away with.  Now I realize this is a little jaded of a view and there are, in fact, some great seasonal workers.  What I am trying to illustrate is that as a whole the need to care for the company’s well-being is not the goal, but personal gain is so this causes the trend to be higher that employee theft will come from seasonal help.  Finally, the ability to conduct an employee theft investigation is hampered by increased business and short time frames before the seasonal positions end. Internal theft is a real fact of business so be ready to protect your profits this holiday season.

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