THE HARSH REALITY OF EMPLOYEE THEFT

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