There is one recurring theme seems to be present in almost every employee theft investigation that I have been involved in, and that is that the employee was inadequately supervised or had too much autonomous control over an area of the business.

I was having dinner with a friend who works in bank administration, and we were discussing the problems of internal theft (not great dinner conversation, I’ll grant you.)  She remarked that at the bank where she was employed, every employee who handled cash and certain other financial transactions was required to take two straight weeks off each year, so that another employee had to take over responsibility for the person’s job for that period of time.  This was done to avoid internal theft.

Then I thought of all the employee theft investigation that I have reviewed over the years, and how many of the thefts were discovered or suspected when the employee had to take extended time off for illness or other unforeseen reason.

These cases of internal theft were more often than not met with disbelief by management and co-workers who admired the person because he was so dedicated that “she never took vacation” or “he never wanted anyone to help him with his work”.  Only later do they discover the reason why the person was so dedicated, and that was because it is much easier to cover one’s tracks when no one is checking up or adequately supervising one’s work.

One of the best and most efficient methods to avoid prolonged periods of internal theft is to institute a policy requiring periodic audits of every employee who has access to company assets, particularly in the accounting arena.  Allowing the same employee to control payables, receivables, and payroll is too often asking for employee theft to happen.  Delegating parts of the process will frequently avoid taking advantage of this situation. The employee theft investigation sometimes comes too late to recover all that’s been stolen.

But don’t overlook employees in shipping and receiving who handle merchandise and take out the trash.  Is your merchandise in the trash to be picked up later.  Many companies wisely conduct trash audits to avoid theft opportunities.

Every business owner needs to consider if their “best employee” is really that or are they covering up their own employee theft.

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

It is paramount that you understand from the outset that an internal theft is not a triple homicide and an employee theft investigation is not an episode of CSI: Miami. You will never get anyone with the intelligence of a grasshopper to cop to employee theft by sitting them in a dimly lit room and grilling them over and over again. This only works on TV- really bad TV. The best way to achieve your goal (which, by the way, is a confession) is to gain the subjects trust, put them at ease and inform them that you’re here to help.

Hopefully you’ve nearly concluded your employee theft investigation by the time you sit an individual down to speak to them about an internal theft matter. Therefore you have gathered some proof about their wrong-doing, whether it be a policy violation or plain old employee theft, you know what you’re looking for. Frame your questions and statements in a non-threatening format. Avoid words like: Steal, Crime, Jail, Police, etc. Instead use words like: Took, Borrowed, Lost, etc. You want to put the subject at ease by minimizing the perceived severity of the infraction. Nobody is going to call up jail to make reservations. Ease their mind and their resistance by letting them see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Almost everyone will initially deny having committed employee theft. Help them to rationalize what it is that they’ve done. Give them excuses: The economy is bad, gas prices are so high, baby needs a new pair of shoes. Whatever will get them talking and feeling like you understand their pain and that you’re there to help. The next time you’re faced with an internal theft case remember these techniques and you’ll conclude your employee theft investigation with greater speed and efficiency.

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Internal theft, also known as employee theft, causes close to 50% of retail business loss each year. In the thirty years of preforming employee theft investigations I am still shocked by what a poor job most businesses do in common sense loss prevention. A good example of one of the instances was an employee theft investigation that I did where $5000 in fraudulent business checks were cashed. It turned out that the back stock of checks were unsecure in a storeroom with office supplies. Janitor’s stole20 some checks from the middle of the stack waited a month and them began to cash them. Those checks should have been secured under lock and key with strict access.

Every day we drop our guard because it is more difficult to do it the right way. Doing it the right way will prevent employee theft. The key is “prevention”. Or we say, “oh I trust that person, they would never do that”. Those words get more and more businesses in trouble everyday. When a management person says that they are basically saying that they have no common business sense.

Another case involved employees that stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in product from a distribution center they worked in. They were given keys to the facility that had millions of dollars of merchandise in it, with no alarm system. So coming back at night and loading up a truck was easy.

Internal theft or employee theft lurks around every corner. You have to be proactive to prevent it. Internal theft will not go away or stop on its own. In fact it will get worse. Get your policy manual off the shelf, dust it off, update it and make sure people understand that this is your “business bible”, live it and enforce it. That does not mean that it never changes, far from it. As your business changes your policy and procedures should change.

For more information on an employee theft investigation in Atlanta, GA contact us or call 1.770.426.0547

Considering employee theft, no company willingly hires a thief.  Most companies actually run some sort of criminal history or background check before they hire someone, just to be sure that they aren’t hiring a thief.  So why does an allegedly honest employee suddenly turn to a life of crime and take money from his employer’s pocket.

May people may think that calling employee theft a “life of crime” is an overreach, but not the thousands of employers whose businesses are harmed by these thieves.

How do employers allow internal theft to happen?  Is there any way to stop it?

Several of elements have to exist for theft by employees to continue:

The employee has some perceived need for the cash or merchandise; the employee either can’t or doesn’t want to pay for the merchandise; the thief has the opportunity to convert the property to his own use; the thief has little fear of being caught, or of the consequences if he is caught.

After conducting hundreds of employee theft investigations, the common denominator for individuals who continue stealing from their employers has been a lack of oversight by supervision, or the lack of internal controls within the company.

Generally, a trusted employee is allowed to go about his business without being audited or routinely checked up on by supervision.  Employee thieves almost always start by stealing small amounts and grow bolder as time goes on and they remain undetected.  Frequency of thefts and amounts taken increase until the habit is out of hand even in the mind of the employee.

The solution to internal theft lies in the culture of the company itself.  Policies and procedures are designed and implemented which require certain job functions to be directly supervised or periodically audited to preclude continued employee theft.  The fact that this happens should be communicated to all employees as they are hired and reinforced regularly.  This should include every job function fro trash disposal (what else go out with the trash?) to the accounting department (does the same person do receipts, deposits, and disbursements?)

Maybe it’s time to take an objective look at your company’s policies and procedures and whether or not they’re being enforced consistently.

Loss prevention consultants have experience in analyzing and correcting any deficiency that allows employee theft to exist and thrive.  An expert in loss prevention investigation can quickly and economically focus on those areas of the business that actually encourage internal theft through lack of attention.

To speak with a loss prevention investigator about employee theft, internal theft, or an employee theft investigation, call 1-770-426-0547 or click here for more information.