What the heck is Collusion?  Sounds like some sort of torture or perhaps something rather risqué.  Employee theft can often be associated with collusion.  And sometimes collusion is more prevalent in small companies than larger ones. Atlanta business are just as open to this as any other.

The exact definition of collusion is an agreement, sometimes illegal and therefore secretive, which occurs between two or more persons to limit open competition by deceiving, misleading, or defrauding others of their legal rights, or to obtain an objective forbidden by law typically by defrauding or gaining an unfair advantage.  Employee theft by collusion can be complicated or extremely simple.

Let’s look at a simple example.  You have a company who purchases widgets.  There are two widget manufacturers, widget maker A and widget maker B.  Pricing, delivery and customer service as a vendor for A and B are exactly the same.  The one difference is, widget maker A has purchased for the procurement manager of your company season football tickets to the Atlanta Falcons (yes I know you are thinking, “who in the world would want those tickets”, try to stay with me though), therefore your procurement manager makes a secret agreement with A and will not purchase widgets from maker B, he goes with manufacturer A to get those FABULOUS tickets.  That example my friend is employee theft by collusion.

Data obtained from Wikipedia shows the following more complicated historical examples of collusion in the United States:

• Market division and price-fixing among manufacturers of heavy electrical equipment in the 1960s, including General Electric.
• An attempt by Major League Baseball owners to restrict players’ salaries in the mid-1980s.
• The sharing of potential contract terms by NBA free agents in an effort to help a targeted franchise circumvent the salary cap
• Price fixing within food manufacturers providing cafeteria food to schools and the military in 1993.

Suspect employee theft by collusion in your Atlanta area company?  Contact us at employee theft or call 1.770.426.0547 for assistance.

According to the Economic Espionage Act of 1996, a trade secret is any confidential plan, formula, pattern, program device, technique, code, or collection of information that, once released, could potentially benefit a business.  Did you know that a trade secret isn’t even anything that has to be written down?  It can be in someone’s memory and can still be a target of employee theft. Atlanta based companies are just as open to this as any other in the country.

Employee theft has many different shapes and forms.  Basically when someone works for a company, let’s say in the research and development field, anything designed or developed under that company’s employ becomes property of said company.  If that particular item is never released to the public, then the trade secret obligations are still present.  It would be considered employee theft for that information to be used by that employee either after employment ends or if it’s released without the employer’s consent.

A confidentiality agreement may be the best way to protect a company from trade secret employee theft.   An agreement of this nature is a legally binding contract, which prohibits involved parties (such as company employees) from disclosing trade secret information to the public, third parties, or worse—the competition.

Many employers have gone to great lengths to protect their trade secrets.  An interesting study showed that up to 58% of all employees steal something from a business.  Trade secret theft however affects business the most when there are 100 employees or less.  Some small businesses can be destroyed by employee theft of trade secrets.
Suspect Trade secret theft?

Contact us at about employee theft or call at 1.770.426.0547.

In some businesses employee theft has been going on for so long that it has escalated into a serious problem that is not only right under managements nose but actually condoned.

Take a retail store as an example. In the beginning management overlooks employees taking small items such as candy, sodas… It goes on for so long that it not only becomes the norm but also actually happens right in front of management. Those same managers do nothing. So the employees learn that this is acceptable behavior. Even worse the same managers do it to!

A candy bar for $1.50 (remember when they were $0.50?) stolen by an employee is not just a loss of $1.50. If your stores profit margin is 2% then that employee just ate $75.00 (1.50 / .02). You will have to sell $75 to BREAK EVEN. Let’s say that same employee does that four times a week for a year. That’s $15,600.00 that you will have to sell to break even on a thief with a sweet tooth.

If management allow that to go on or condones it then others will do the same. “It’s OK” becomes the standard. Which means that employee theft becomes the norm. I can also tell you for a fact that it will not stop there. Some companies have a policy that if a cashier is only short $5.00 at the end of the day that they do not investigate it. That tells the cashiers that it is OK to steal $4.99 and below. To a cashier that is lunch money, gasoline (OK not very much gasoline, but still!).

The problem is that this can simply creep up on a business. It starts out little and gets bigger. That’s the culture that has been established. Most employee theft starts out small. After that the thief gets bolder and then we wonder why it has happened.

You must establish a zero theft policy. Draw a line in the sand and do not just look the other way. Employee theft will not go away on its own.

For more information: employee theft or call 1.770.426.0547

25% of economy in Atlanta is based on retail and close to half of all retail inventory losses are due to employee theft. Imagine what a boost the Atlanta economy would realize if businesses cut their losses in half or more.

Employee theft accounts for the largest source of inventory loss to retailers beating out the #2 source, shoplifting.  Many retailers are surprised to find that the people they trust and socialize with are stealing them blind.

The University of Florida reports annually on retail security and the report is considered to be the “Bible” of the loss prevention world.  In the 2009 study they found that 42.7% of inventory loss was due to employee theft and 14.4% involved collusion.  Employees are teaming up with friends and family giving them the inside scoop of how things work in the retail store.  They offer tips on how to avoid security cameras and even check them out and pass merchandise through without scanning it.

An Atlanta store owner called us because he suspected a long time employee of taking cash from the register and from back office receipts.  During our investigation, it was determined that the store had also been losing merchandise at a higher that normal rate, and the cause of the shortage was unknown.  After determining some of the items (some of the items were one-of-a-kind), our investigator found evidence of an Ebay store that had the items for sale. For more CSI (Caught Stealing Incidents) go here: CSI.

The good news is this problem can be identified and stopped.  For help with your employee theft issues in Atlanta visit Loss Prevention Systems today.