In fact, missing merchandise can just as easily, and just as likely, an employee theft problem.  Yep, you heard right.  Employee theft is a reality.  Internal theft, the retail term for employee theft, is generally the #1 shrink factor in retail stores.  Just like customers, employees often don’t want to pay for their products either.  So how do you know if the missing inventory is due to shoplifting or internal theft?

 The answer is you have to conduct an employee theft investigation.  One of the first ways to conduct an employee theft investigation is to track when the product goes missing.  To do this you will need to conduct “mini-inventories” or cycle counts, as they are commonly known, every day you work.  By doing this you will narrow down when the product is going missing.  (Thieves tend to stick to the same product group so you won’t have to count every item in the store; just what you have noticed is missing.)  You can then compare the dates of loss to your employee schedule to see if the same worker is present at every, or almost every, loss date.  This is not an automatic indicator of guilt as more than one person can be stealing the same product, but it will give you a starting point.

Next, is the tedious part.  Surveillance.  It is best if you have a Loss Prevention Agent that works for the company as this is time consuming.  There are also companies who have trained LP agents for hire that can help complete an employee theft investigation on a case by case basis.  You will need to observe the employee for several days to see if you can catch him/her in the act.  Hand in the cookie jar is the best way to avoid liability.  I also suggest package checks (especially when you think you have something).  The employee may not be expecting this and it’s a great way to get the evidence you need.

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

I can already hear the questions.  How are voids an employee theft issue?  Isn’t that just a problem with customer satisfaction or training?  The answer is “D” all of the above.  Voids are a necessary evil.  We would all like for customers to buy everything they come to the register with, but sometimes they change their minds about certain items or there is a problem at the payment time and the whole order has to be voided.  The ability to do a void is often a source of employee theft, also known as internal theft.  Here are some tips on how to do an employee theft investigation into voids.

Each day you need to review the voids from the previous day.  This is best done if you have reporting software that can show you all of the voids easily and can break them down into frequency by cashier.  If you don’t have this type of software this can be done by hand going through the journal tape.

Internal theft can occur with voids in a couple of ways.  First, employee theft can occur by the employee voiding an item or two off for a friend and family member while still putting it in the bag.  From video it looks like the item was scanned properly; however, the reality is it just got stolen.

The second way employee theft can occur is voiding the whole transaction.  A cashier may ring up a legitimate customer, accept the cash and then void the transaction.  Now the register has “extra” money that they can steal and it won’t show on your daily over/short report because the register thinks the transaction never happened.

Employee theft investigations are necessary in protecting your business.  Unfortunately, internal theft is a real thing so it is worth the time to “dig in” and see what is going on.

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

I hope the answer is “yes”.  Statistically, employee theft, also known as internal theft, is the highest causal factor for loss in retail.  I know we all like to believe that cash losses are just “mistakes” and that we can do some re-training to fix the problem.  You may be right.  Some cash loss is due to mistakes being made.  Unfortunately, it can often be due to internal theft.  So how do you know the difference?  Easy, you have to conduct an employee theft investigation every time you have a cash loss to find out what the cause is.

Employee theft investigations can be simple or complex.  It really just depends on the situation.  For cash, you should start your employee theft investigation by creating an Over/Short tracker.  One way to do this is create a spreadsheet with all of the employees who run a register listed on the left hand column going vertically across the page.  Then you make a row of dates horizontally across the top.  Every time you have a shortage, go ahead and make a mark by each cashier on the till under the date the shortage occurred.  If you do have a thief, you will start to see a pattern develop over time as you will only have one common denominator on the tills.

Another way to complete and employee theft investigation on cash is to do a careful review of the journal roll for that register.  You are looking for a few things.

1) You are looking for a mistake that may show that it was an error and not theft.

2) You are looking for high employee theft indicators such as: No Sales, Refunds, Voids, etc.

You should then use your camera system to “spot check” a few suspicious transactions to see if that is where the money went missing.

Internal theft investigations on cash often take time and patience, but it’s well worth the investment if it means removing a dishonest employee.

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

I can already hear the question.  If I had a cashier stealing wouldn’t I be looking for missing cash and not high voids?  The answer is “not necessarily”.  Internal theft, which is the retail term for employee theft, has a long history of void abuse.  It is important to conduct an employee theft investigation if you start seeing high voids.

Here is how this employee theft scam works.  The customer comes to the register with product.  The cashier rings up the product totaling $46.  The customer, if paying with cash, will likely give the cashier $50.  The cashier has a few options at this point.  Some register programs have the ability to do a “void during”, which is to say they can void the whole transaction during the middle of sale.  If so, the cashier can void the sale at that point.  They will then do a “No Sale” to open the drawer and “finish” the transaction.  The customer sees the drawer open and the cashier give them back their $4 in change so they don’t know anything happened.  They take the merchandise and leave.  Now the drawer has $46 more than what the register thinks it should have since with the void the transaction “never took place”.  As for the internal theft piece, now the cashier can take the money and the drawer will still balance.  If your register system can do a “void after”, which is to say after the transaction has been tendered, then the cashier can do the same thing.  Ring the sale and process the customer and once the customer leaves they can void the sale and take the cash.  Most all companies will have a variation of this type of employee theft at some point.  That is why it is good to keep an eye on voids and complete an employee theft investigation any time you notice a spike in void transactions.

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

For those of you who don’t know, I have a little secret to tell.  {Whispering} “Shhhh … EMPLOYEE’S STEAL!!!”  Ok, so I admit that may be a little dramatic, but I hope the point is made.  I hear many employers say they don’t have employee theft and that is just not the case.  Year after year and study after study shows that employee theft, also known as internal theft, is linked to nearly half of all retail losses.  There are many different ways that internal theft can occur, but I want to focus this article on refund theft and how to conduct an employee theft investigation on refunds.

The first step to conducting an employee theft investigation of refunds is to actually look at your refunds.  Hopefully, you have POS software that will pull refund reports.  If not, you can do things the old fashion way and scroll through your journal tape and find all of your refunds from the previous day.  This must be a daily activity.  Next, you will want to look for refunds of the same item.  Often internal theft of refunds occurs by the cashier returning an item legitimately for a customer and then when no one is around they do another “refund” and keep the cash or gift card for themselves.

Another good idea is to look at numbers and dollar amounts of refunds and look at the employees as a whole for that day.  If 3 employees did refunds you would expect their numbers to be similar.  Look for the associate who is well above the pack in either number or dollar amount of refunds.  Why the difference?  Pull video and look at a few transactions to verify that a customer is present and product is present.

Employee theft investigations are essential in protecting your profits and your business.  Unfortunately, employee theft is a real thing so it is worth the time to “dig in” and see what is going on.

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

Once you’ve uncovered employee theft at your business, you are left with the decision of which action to take with the affected employee.

You of course will terminate the employment of the offender.  No business can thrive if it allows internal theft to go unpunished.

You will want restitution for all merchandise or money or other property that was discovered stolen as a result of the employee theft investigation.  This can be accomplished in a couple of ways: either repayment by the ex-employee, repayment through probation, or civil recovery.

This is where the business owner begins to weigh the alternatives.  The initial reaction of most victims is to throw the offender into jail, but this usually subsides when considering all the facts.

You, as the victim, can contact the local law enforcement agency to transport the offender to jail.  Generally, you will still have to make a formal complaint or sign an arrest warrant for the individual specifying precisely what was stolen and over what period of time.

Prosecution does not guarantee a conviction for internal theft.  There are steps along the way to the judge’s bench that have to be taken first.

The prosecutor has to be convinced by the evidence that he has a winnable case.  Unless the employee theft investigation was correctly done, or the employee was caught in the act of stealing, or there is a properly executed written admission, the prosecutor may consider the case too weak to try.

Sometimes the decision is made for him in a preliminary or evidentiary hearing by a judge who dismisses the case for lack of evidence or on some technicality.

Then at some point in the future, the fun begins with a real trial.  Unless the ex-employee pleads guilty, prepare for delays and postponements and long days in the courtroom waiting for the case to be called.

Some employers avoid prosecution because it takes an investment of time and money to successfully follow through on an action that may not be successful.  Criminal trials can be iffy propositions if not prepared for by a professional investigator as the result of an employee theft investigation.

Other employers prosecute every time they have the opportunity in order to send a message to other employees who might be considering a similar activity.

The final decision regarding prosecution of employee theft weighing a number of variables must be made by the business owner.

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

Employee theft doesn’t really hurt anyone… Or does it?

How about the employer?  Losses of small items may not seem like much, but multiplied over time and by a number of employees, the losses add up to a lot in a hurry.  The employer must also devote resources to the prevention of theft in the workplace and the cost of an employee theft investigation when it occurs.

And then there are all the employees of the company who are victims of internal theft.  Losses to the company mean less profit, which means less money for payroll and benefits, as well as less money to invest back into the business, which increases workload and reduces productivity.  Employees may also lose trust in each other.

The customers and clients of the company who are forced to pay higher prices for goods and services because the company must recover part of its losses to employee theft in order to stay in business.

The thief is actually hurt the most.  Although the thief may think he or she is getting away with something, eventually he or she is bothered by conscience or fear of detection.  And, because chances are good that the thief will be caught in an employee theft investigation, other repercussions may be: loss of employment; embarrassment; damaged reputation; difficulty in finding employment; or criminal prosecution, which will result in a jail sentence, fines, and /or probation.

The least obvious, but still highly impacted victims of internal theft are all of us who pay taxes.  Public crime prevention programs, police officers, judges, prosecutors, jailers and other jail employees, court personnel, and probation officers, among many others, are paid for by tax revenue.  A portion of this enormous expense is caused by the workplace thief who goes to jail.

So what at first appears to be a harmless act can have huge implications both personally and to others.

Do your part to eliminate employee theft by not becoming a part of it, and acting on any suspicions of internal theft to stop it before it gets out of hand.

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

The bad news is there is no way to stop employee theft from happening except to not have employees.

You can institute all kinds of policies designed to curb internal theft, and gear all your procedures toward that end and sooner or later, employee theft is going to happen.

The good news is that you can stop internal theft by some people by not making them employees in the first place by using a pre-employment background check to screen out undesirable applicants.

The first check that most employers use is the criminal history check.  No one can connect the dots from a youthful shoplifting offense or a disorderly conduct charge to employee theft, but multiple arrests for serious theft related charges might be reason not to allow an individual unfettered access to your inventory or cash.  Even part timers may be working an extra job to pay a fine, probation fees, or restitution.  Even if an employer chooses not to exclude an applicant for having a police record, it might be a fact to be considered when assigning responsibilities and tasks.

An employment related credit check might be appropriate for some potential employees as well.  There are restrictions on the use of credit checks on employees, so be sure it is substantially related to the applicant’s duties before requesting one.  Your attorney or background check company can offer guidance on this.

Some employers object to background checks because of costs.  But when compared to the potential savings gained by not hiring a thief, the cost of an effective employee theft investigation or even terminating an employee for theft and hiring a replacement, the cost begins to look a lot more attractive.  And don’t forget the property lost to internal theft that may never be recovered through an employee theft investigation.

While employee theft will never be totally stopped, the risk can be reduced through the use of a pre-employment background check during the hiring process.

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

Preliminary reports from the National Retail Security Survey indicate that employee theft makes up the largest category (over 43%) of overall retail theft in the country.  The amount attributed to internal theft in the one-year period of 2010 is $16.2 Billion.

Retail theft overall was up just over 10% to $37.1 Billion.

Large retailers and small retailers have problems with employee theft.  The larger retailers generally have the luxury of an in-house team of investigators and auditors to stay on top of most situations, and to quickly detect and provide a comprehensive employee theft investigation to rectify the issue.

This is an asset most small business owners don’t have because the number of employees as the large retailers, so the episodes of internal theft occur too infrequently to justify such an expense.

That doesn’t reduce the pain when employee theft hits the business, however.  As a matter of fact, the pain is worse for the smaller retailer because the thefts generally go on for a longer period without being detected, and the amount of theft is proportionately higher to the revenue.

An employee theft investigation is not something that is to be undertaken by an amateur.  Smart businesses have relied on an experienced loss prevention investigator that is available on a case-by-case basis to assist in alleviating the problem.

One of the mistakes small business owners make is the decision to undertake their own employee theft investigation.  Generally, they are too close to the employees and to the business operation to objectively analyze the problem.  Better to employ the loss prevention investigator to determine first how widespread the problem is, who is involved, gather the evidence and stop the bleeding.

Don’t contribute to the national retail theft statistics.  Stop your problem before it severely affects your profits by contacting an experienced loss prevention investigator the minute you suspect employee theft.

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