For those who have spent any time in business you know that you have employee theft.  In retail we often refer to this as internal theft since the theft is happening inside the company.  For retail, employee theft is linked to between 45-55% of most companies overall shrink.  In order to combat the internal theft we have to conduct an employee theft investigation.

There are numerous ways to conduct an employee theft investigation and numerous tools that can be used.  One major tool is the use of CCTV.  Something I tell all of my staff is that there is a major difference between what you know and what you can prove.  We have all been in situations where we “knew” what a particular employee was doing or we “knew” that a particular employee was up to no good.  The problem comes when we have to “prove” wrong doing in order to get a termination, avoid paying unemployment and in some cases make a successful prosecution.

One of the best ways to have proof is by using CCTV.  Checkpoint makes a quality CCTV system that can be as advanced or basic as your individual needs are.  I recommend that all stores have several cameras in key areas.  You will want to have coverage of all registers, cash office and doors.  Manager’s offices, receiving and floor cameras are a bonus, but you don’t have to have those.  You will find that most employee theft happens at the registers so those are the most important.  I have found that the majority of internal theft occurs with cash or with cashiers under-ringing product or just giving it away for free.  Having cameras in these key locations will go a long way to helping your employee theft investigation end with enough proof to win your case.  While these cases can be done without video, it certainly makes things harder.

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

There are many ways to incur employee theft (also known as internal theft).  With the economy in the condition it is in, many of our employees are coming up short on funds.  In order to make ends meet, or to keep a certain standard of living in difficult times, many are turning to theft.  Employee theft is something that plagues every business and can negatively impact the business in several ways. Something that I have seen more of recently is credit fraud.

Internal theft by credit fraud hurts the company in several ways and it requires a quality employee theft investigation in order to solve the problem.  Employees can commit credit fraud in several ways.  The first is that the employee keeps receipts or writes down the credit card number before giving the card back to the customer.  (A key tool in your employee theft investigation is to look for slips of paper around the register with numbers written on them).  They will then use that card number to manually enter it for purchases by friends and family members.  They may also take that card number and make on-line purchases.  Another very popular option is to re-program another credit card with the newly acquired card number and then go shopping at the customer’s expense.

This has several effects.  One, if the card was used fraudulently at your store then you will likely be charged back once the cardholder reports fraud to their credit card company.  This causes a loss to your company.  The second impact is customer relations.  By having your customer’s money taken by an employee they are much less likely to continue to shop at your store and you can bet they will tell their friends.  With social media being as popular as it is negative word about your company can spread very rapidly and have a major impact on your business.

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

Employee theft is something every business fears, especially small business owners and niche retailers. We’re in the sales business! We make money on the volume of merchandise we sell. It is not about buying an item for $10 bucks and re-selling it for $100. Sure everyone would love to earn a 900% profit on every purchase.

It is just not realistic in this economy!

Employee theft occurs for a number of reasons and most employers never know what has happened until it is too late. All it takes is one dishonest employee and one fraudulent transaction for your profits to become non-existent.

Internal theft is the primary cause of shortage for all retailers.  “When times get tough”, it is likely you could be required to conduct an employee theft investigation.

How do you protect yourself from employee theft?

1. Stay informed.

Arm yourself with the information you need to make good business decisions.

2. Know your people and your product.

Internal theft can be deterred with an effective loss prevention strategy.

3. Get assistance from an experienced LP professional.

Employee theft investigation revolves around gathering evidence through the use of sounds loss prevention strategies that make theft easy to detect.

A company I once worked for hired a loss prevention consultant to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to manage our inventory process. The plan included a variety of internal controls that helped us realize our strengths and weaknesses.

Three months after executing the strategy we identified a serious employee theft problem in our shipping and receiving department. We contacted our LP consultants and they conducted a rigorous employee theft investigation into the company’s inventory shortages.

Our suspicions were confirmed and the internal theft problem was quickly resolved.  The loss prevention strategy we implemented helped us build a criminal case against our dishonest employees to recover the stolen merchandise. That was the last time an employee shipped un-purchased merchandise from our warehouse to the residence of friends and family.

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

Internal theft is just as big a problem as shoplifting, even though many people believe that employee theft rarely occurs. I have conducted numerous employee theft investigations in locations where management believed it was just an isolated issue involving just one disgruntled employee.

During one such employee theft investigation I started looking into a customer disputing a credit card charge. This customer complaint led to the arrest and conviction of seven cashiers, one supervisor and one assistant manager. The group of employees was copying customer’s credit card information. They would then pass the information to friends who would come into the store and purchase items. The smallest information during an internal theft case can lead to a much bigger employee theft organized theft case.

Employee theft cases can cause companies to lose millions of dollars in profits, so companies need to be proactive to prevent internal theft. During the hiring process the business must explain how serious they take employee theft. I put together a program at my last employer where all employees would complete a security orientation. This orientation would show all employees’s how serious we take security at the establishment.

All business must make it be known that when an employee theft investigation is being conducted their will be severe legal consequences. If as an employee you think that stealing a candy bar is not going to harm the company financially. You are incorrect every time an item is stolen no matter what the cost it’s taking away from the company profits. If a company losses outweigh their profits it has to start cutting back. So the nickel that an employee is stealing from the company in reality you are stealing it from your own pocket. Internal theft not only affects the business, but also the employees who lose their job because the company goes out of business.

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

As a loss prevention executive with more than a decade of experience working retail loss prevention I can attest that internal theft is directly related to more than 50% of company loss each year.  Every major retail corporation in the United States dedicates time and resources to employee theft investigation.

One thing I have learned over the years is that good people make poor choices.  Sometimes the employees that are causing the most loss are last ones anyone would have rushed to judge responsible for employee theft.

A company I once worked for resolved more than $150,000 in employee theft is just one year. This was a shocking revelation!  We successfully investigated and prosecuted internal theft by sales associates, merchandising staff, shipping and receiving staff, custodians, contractors, and unfortunately our most trusted team member – the executive.

When I think back to this period of time one case in particular comes to mind. I conducted an employee theft investigation into the transactions of a sales manager who had been with the company for 15 years.  The manager was highly respected for her hard work and team spirit.

Our inventory revealed inconsistencies in the volume of merchandise we had on hand versus the number of sales and returns she was crediting.  We suspected employee theft right away and my employee theft investigation revealed she was selling one item and giving out a duplicate item in conjunction with a sale.

The customer would return to the store the following day and return the duplicate item with a receipt to obtain cash refunds for the total amount of the purchase.  In the loss prevention business this type of internal theft is referred to as “under ringing” or a “pass out.”

Internal theft investigations saved our business and our jobs!

Employee theft investigation is a delicate process.  You must be liability conscious and your investigator must be properly trained handle employee theft cases to protect your business from adverse action.

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

I recently became a member of NADDI (National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators) and attended my first conference.  I was blown away by all of the other stores with pharmacies who were discussing the employee theft of drugs.  A recent study conducted by the GBI showed that last year in the state of Georgia, deaths related to drugs were almost 5 to 1 prescription drugs versus illicit drugs.  Yep.  You read that right.  Based on the study a significant majority of people died on legal drugs instead of illegal drugs.

One of the major ways that these legal drugs are making their way on the street is due to internal theft.  The street value for narcotics is huge.  Depending on the drug there are some that are selling for $25-$50 a pill.  As an employee of a pharmacy, if you steal a 100 count bottle of most any schedule 3 pain medicine (lower street value, but also reduced security) you can expect to get roughly $500 or more for that one little bottle.  With the money to be made it is easy to see why internal theft is so high in this area.

Another major reason for employee theft of these medications is personal addiction.  Many pharmacy employees become tempted to self medicate since they are around pills all day and they know what “good feeling” they can deliver.  There are an alarming number of techs and pharmacists who are users themselves and steal to support their habits.

If you run a pharmacy or have one inside your business (as most grocery stores do) it is important to conduct a routine employee theft investigation.  An employee theft investigation can be done in several ways.  It can include routine drug testing.  You can also use covert cameras to monitor areas the employees don’t think are covered.  Finally, you can do routine counts of the “high theft” items to track discrepancies.

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

I recently became a member of NADDI (National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators) and attended my first conference.  I was blown away by all of the other stores with pharmacies who were discussing the employee theft of drugs.  A recent study conducted by the GBI showed that last year in the state of Georgia, deaths related to drugs were almost 5 to 1 prescription drugs versus illicit drugs.  Yep.  You read that right.  Based on the study a significant majority of people died on legal drugs instead of illegal drugs.

One of the major ways that these legal drugs are making their way on the street is due to internal theft.  The street value for narcotics is huge.  Depending on the drug there are some that are selling for $25-$50 a pill.  As an employee of a pharmacy, if you steal a 100 count bottle of most any schedule 3 pain medicine (lower street value, but also reduced security) you can expect to get roughly $500 or more for that one little bottle.  With the money to be made it is easy to see why internal theft is so high in this area.

Another major reason for employee theft of these medications is personal addiction.  Many pharmacy employees become tempted to self medicate since they are around pills all day and they know what “good feeling” they can deliver.  There are an alarming number of techs and pharmacists who are users themselves and steal to support their habits.

If you run a pharmacy or have one inside your business (as most grocery stores do) it is important to conduct a routine employee theft investigation.  An employee theft investigation can be done in several ways.  It can include routine drug testing.  You can also use covert cameras to monitor areas the employees don’t think are covered.  Finally, you can do routine counts of the “high theft” items to track discrepancies.

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

The answer is “Yes”.  Employee discount abuse does actually cause a loss to the company.  When I refer to discount abuse I am talking about an associate letting friends and family members use their employee discount.  Many companies give their employees a discount as a perk of working for the company.  As we all know employees like to share this little perk with others.  This is a type of internal theft, also known as employee theft, and must be dealt with.  This means conducting an employee theft investigation.

It is easy to ignore this type of activity, but an employee theft investigation must still take place.  For one reason there is a policy violation.  Most all companies who give a discount have a clear policy about who is suppose to receive the discount.  This is also an ethical concern.  If an employee will clearly break a policy for personal gain by giving a discount away then what’s to say they won’t engage in other types of more serious employee theft.  You are either honest or you’re not.  Ethics does not have shades of grey.

The second thing the associate is guilty of is internal theft.  The company is losing profits by the employee’s friends and family members not paying full price.  The more a customer pays for the product the more the company makes.  These unauthorized discounts (aka employee theft) are thus cutting into the profits.  Again, even though it may be small amounts over the course of time you will find you are losing significant dollars.  Consider if you have a 10% discount and each employee gives that away to 3 friends and family members.  If you have just 10 employees that is still 30 people getting 10% off hundreds to thousands of dollars of merchandise a year.  Now we are talking real profit loss.

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 retailers incur internal theft (also known as employee theft).  One way that employee theft can occur is by discounting products without authorization.  In order to find out if employees are stealing by abusing discounts you will need to conduct an employee theft investigation.

It is important to conduct a routine employee theft investigation in order to follow up suspicious activity or just to make sure you have a finger on the pulse of your business.  There are several ways that I have caught employees stealing via using discounts.  One way is by a cashier changing the price of items as he/she rings them in order to give friends, family members and often other employees and extra discount.  These discounts are generally significant and are between 50-90% off.

Another way that I have discovered internal theft by using discounts is when they mark their own product down.  To do this the employee will use the scan gun or pricing gun (depending on how your company does markdowns) and make a new lower price label and put it on merchandise he/she wants.  They can then take this product to the registers and most cashiers won’t question the low price.  They will just assume it is a clearance item and ring the product at the significantly lower price.  A really sneaky associate will do the markdown and then give the items to a friend or family member to take through the register.  This is much harder to catch because the person doing the markdown is separated from the person making the purchase.

Whether you find that your employees are marking down product at the register or by printing labels this dishonest activity needs to be addressed.  There is a real ethical concern by associates who will manipulate your systems to pay less than expected.  There is also a loss to the company as the employee is now paying significantly less for their product.

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