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

There are many ways that internal theft (or employee theft) can cut into our profits.  Employees have access to many things that shoplifters don’t.  For example, employees can access large amounts of backstock merchandise while shoplifters can only steal the small quantities we put on the shelves.  Many high dollar items are locked in cases so shoplifters can’t steal them.  Guess who has the keys?  The employees do.  We keep our cash locked tight in registers, safes and use armed guards to transport it to the bank.  But … Employees have to touch the money first.  All statistics show that employee theft is the main way retailers take losses.

One of the main things stolen from a business is its cash.  Product is great, but cash can be used anywhere and for anything.  With the economy in the pits, the need for help paying the mortgage and car note are greater than they have been in the last 50 years.  In fact, many are struggling to put food on the table.  I did a recent employee theft investigation where the person was stealing small dollar amounts each day so they could eat food from the vending machine in order to buy real food for her kids.  It was one of the many heartbreaking realities I have come across recently.

With the holidays approaching internal theft of cash becomes an even bigger concern.  For one, there is increased pressure to come up with cash to buy Christmas presents for everyone you know.  To add to that, many companies will be bringing on seasonal help so you now have more employees and you have employees who don’t have much loyalty to the company as they know their time is limited.  Remember to do an employee theft investigation as soon as you find money missing.  It may just be an error, but at this time you need to be prepared for all possibilities.

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

That is a question that I have come across many times during my career; companies that I have worked for sometimes doubt that they even have an employee theft problem in their business. The biggest time of the year where internal theft should be of major concern is during the holiday season. I conducted an employee theft investigation at one of my job sites where the store manager refused to acknowledge that he had a major employee theft problem.

The manager just refused to look at the bigger picture that employee theft is not the cause for the entire theft problem, but internal theft is a part of the problem.

When my investigation started uncovering internal theft issues, I made sure the manager sat in during an interrogation. During this employee theft investigation I interviewed the employee who had been employed by the store for over ten years. The manager was dumb founded at how easily the employee told us how the theft occurred and even named other individuals that were stealing from the company. At the end of the employee theft investigation the manager had finally come to the realization that anyone even those employee’s with long term seniority could be an internal theft risk.

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

It can be a hard fact to accept when you find out that one of your valued employees is guilty of internal theft.  Internal theft is referred to as theft by employees who are hired to work for your business.  In my experience I have found that everyone entering your store is not planning on doing a good job for you.  In fact some are actually planning on doing a number on you.

As hard as it is to conceive internal theft is very common.  Unfortunately internal theft often makes up the majority of all losses seen by retailers.  Employees suspected of theft are often hard to catch.  An employee theft investigation has to be done in a very sensitive manner and in a way that any other parties involved will also be discovered during the investigation.  It is important that an employee theft investigation capture all employees involved in committing the theft.

The damage from allowing employee theft to continue with initiating an employee theft investigation immediately can be severe.  Employee theft can result in the loss of thousands of dollars in merchandise for a retailer in a very short amount of time.  Many employees who commit theft came into the business the first day knowing exactly what they wanted to do.

Employee theft can be practically unnoticeable until it is too late.  Having the assistance of loss prevention professional that specialize in employee theft investigation is a plus.  As a loss prevention manager, I have handled hundreds of cases involving employee theft and had to interview the employees implicated in the investigation.  It has never ceased to amaze me the ways in which employees justify their crime.   I have heard employees say that they were passed over for promotion or that they were owed the money for all the work they had done.  Businesses must be proactive in the preventing employees from stealing from them.

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

Employees can steal anything, but nothing is more sought after than cold hard cash.  Employee theft (also called internal theft) of cash is perhaps the most common theft that I investigate.  The reason two fold.  First, merchandise can have limited functionality to the thief, but cash can be used for anything.  Secondly, there are more ways to steal cash than merchandise.

Internal theft of merchandise is generally straight forward.  The employee takes the merchandise and leaves without paying.  Sometimes you run into employee theft where the employee bags up merchandise and “passes it off” to a friend or family member without charging them, but these are the two main examples of merchandise theft.  An employee theft investigation into cash theft can have a lot more avenues to follow.

One way internal theft of cash can take place is by the cashier simply opening the drawer and removing the cash.  Look for large amounts of “No Sale” transactions to find this type of theft.  Another common employee theft investigation finding is cash theft by voids.  In this method the cashier will void a transaction when they see the customer is paying with cash.  They will still take the cash from the customer and give them the product; but since the void shows the sale as never taking place the associate is free to pocket the cash and there is no traceable shortage on the register.  Another popular cash theft option is refund fraud.  In this case the cashier will do a fake refund to product from the shelf or just laying around the register.  They will then pocket the cash or put the money on a gift card which they can later use or sell.  Whichever method the employee decides to use, employee theft of cash is still a major problem for retailers.

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

In any employee theft investigation there is an important question that should be answered quickly.  Is this a case of an associate making an honest mistake?  I have found that associates that make honest mistakes will not develop a pattern of errors that become harder to explain the longer the employee theft investigation continues.  The purpose of the employee theft investigation is to uncover the truth about observed suspicious behavior or suspicious transaction based on exception reporting.

The reason it is necessary to conduct a thorough investigation is due to the tremendous amount of employee theft that has been committed and was caught far too late.  In the retail industries that I have worked in, employee theft accounted for more than half of all the losses the companies incurred.  The reason for such high losses is because of the time employee theft may go unseen.  Companies can be taken for thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, if employee theft is not disposed of quickly.

While working as a loss prevention manager, I remember when an internal theft case was discovered at one of the store’s distribution centers.  The internal theft case found that there was a pattern of receiving shortages occurring in several districts, all being serviced by this specific distribution center.  The investigation found that the distribution center associates were working with store receiving associates and stealing thousands in merchandise.  The receiving associates would always say that there was just an honest mistake when they unloaded the truck and that the merchandise did arrive at the store.  Thanks to the smart efforts of several loss prevention professionals and corporate loss prevention the case was solved.  This internal theft case included multiple associates in multiple locations.  The theft that was being done could have continued for a long time, if there were not quick and concise actions by the Loss Prevention Department.

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

As long as your business has employees, there will always be the possibility of an internal theft problem. Many business owners think it will never happen to them; however all it takes is one dishonest employee to dramatically cut into your businesses profits.

One recent employee theft investigation that I worked involved a dishonest employee and her friend. It was obvious from video and interviews that over the course of time the dishonest employee became more confident as she got away with discount abuse time after time. As her friend saw her get away with the abuse, she became involved in the discount abuse as well. She allowed many of her friends and family members to use her discount to receive merchandise for half off retail price. This type of internal theft heavily impacted the store’s sales numbers and after the two employees were fired we saw an increase in the store’s profits.

Employee theft like this highlights an important point: if other employees notice a dishonest employee getting away with doing something wrong, they maybe more influenced to become involved in dishonest behaviors as well. It could result from peer pressure or simply the allure of seeing someone take advantage of the system and not get caught.

The best defense against employee theft is to keep an open ear. An employee who talks about having no money but is constantly shopping is a major red flag. Another red flag is employees whose friends and family members frequently shop in the store on regular intervals. If you suspect you may have an internal theft problem, consider hiring an LP professional to conduct a full employee theft investigation.

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

Statistically the number one reason that businesses raise their prices is to offset loss.  Secondly they raise prices to offset an increase in cost from the vendors.  Both of these can be strongly influenced by internal theft (also known as employee theft).

Employee theft is the number one causer of loss in major retail.  Most studies show internal theft as contributing to 45-70% of the overall losses to the company.  In addition, retailers aren’t the only ones experiencing employee theft.  Vendors and manufacturers have internal theft as well.  No company is exempt.  A vendor or manufacturer can have low level employees taking goods and they can have upper management cooking the books and embezzling money as well.  All of these losses are then passed onto the next person down the chain.  The manufacturer charges the vendors more to offset their losses.  The vendors then charge the stores more when they sell to the buyers.  The stores in turn charge more to the consumer.  One way to help keep prices low for your customers and protect your profits is to conduct an employee theft investigation.  This can be done by a trained manager or can be outsourced to trained LP Investigators.

A proper employee theft investigation is geared at accomplishing several results.  The first result is to find the thief and get rid of them.  On the surface this at least fixes that particular problem.  But the employee theft investigation should not stop there.  It should also look at how much did the employee take and pursue restitution, civil demand and possible criminal prosecution.  This will recoup money for the company so ultimately the losses are minimized.  Additionally, the employee theft investigation should look for others committing the same acts and should look at possible solutions to preventing future losses of this nature.  This provides more long term solutions against employee theft.

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

It is true; some of a retailer’s best employees are committing employee theft.  Often high performing associates are not looked at in terms of employee theft; however, I have seen several high performing employees get caught stealing from the company.  Incidences of internal theft are not exclusive to poor performing employees.  These employees may never think about taking from the place they work.

Employee theft or internal theft as it is referred to, can be appealing to any employee that is interested in gaining the system for their own personal enrichment.  I have often found that associates who believe that they are beyond reproach will take in much more brazen ways.  The thought that, no one would ever suspect me, creates a false sense of security for the associate.  Associates that are bent on stealing from the company may also have leadership roles.

I remember an internal theft case that involved a manager with over twenty years of service.  During an employee theft investigation the manager was shown to be disarming the security system at night.  The manager should have been gone for the day, but said they had to get some work done.  The employee theft investigation revealed that the manager was actually taking merchandise out of the store and putting it in their car.

When the employee theft investigation was ended and the manager was interviewed the manager admitted to over $20,000.00 in merchandise theft.  The manager had supposedly started taking the merchandise to finance a personal problem they were dealing with.  The store manager could not believe the person they counted on for years would be implicated in an employee theft investigation.  It was obvious that the store manager would have never watched the assistant manager or even thought that they would have ever stolen from the company.

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

The holidays have arrived and that means the stores will be buzzing with shoppers.  It is important that retailers stay vigilant in making sure they are protecting their assets from the inside out.  This means that, as we are aware of the increase in shoplifting around the holidays, there is also an increase in employee theft around the holidays.  Retailers must do an effective job at preventing both employee theft and shoplifting in their stores.

The number of new employees that are hired during the holidays is high.  All of these employees are not looking to impress their new employers.  In fact, many are planning on committing some type of internal theft.  Employees that never plan on staying passed the holidays are indicated in employee theft cases at an alarming rate.  Unfortunately it is imperative that the retail try to prevent any attempt at internal theft by the seasonal employee.

Having a system in place that automatically can initiate an employee theft investigation at the first sign of any impropriety is important.  A quickly initiated and closed employee theft investigation can be the difference between whether a retailer has a good fourth quarter or not.  Employee theft investigation can be conducted with only the investigator being aware of the investigation.  This will eliminate any suspicion and allow for a thorough investigation.  The limited intrusion into the business will also allow the morale of the employees to continue to be festive, as they want be aware of an ongoing investigation.

I have been in loss prevention for a number of years and I know the importance of closing internal theft cases quickly during the holidays.  Many employees may begin stealing immediately and resign before you can catch them.  Retailers must be focused on protecting their assets from the inside out.  Maintaining a consistent focus on preventing theft during the holidays will ensure a very happy new year.

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