There are literally hundreds of methods employee theft will occur in the workplace. Here is a listing of the top 5 employee theft items large to small employers will face, cash, merchandise, hours, expenses, and office supplies.
Cash – If you have a retail operation, it’s very important that employees do not use the same cash register. It’s extremely difficult if they are all lumped together to find the responsible party if cash comes up missing. Cash theft can encompass company credit cards, tips from other employees, return/exchange theft from transactions and a variety of other schemes.
Merchandise – It is amazing but data shows that management employees of retail stores are more likely to partake in employee theft than lower level store employees. Retailers have been known to lose even large articles, such as televisions or computers.
Hours – There are many companies out there still using manual time cards. The pen and paper method makes it easy for employees to pad their hours, showing more time than they actually worked.
Expenses – Expense reports are a little harder to fake due to attaching receipts, however there are several ways to get around that. For instance, an employee can add mileage to trips or additional tip percentages to meals. Some companies do not require receipts for under $25.00 purchases, this leaves a huge transaction opportunity for employee theft.
Office Supplies – This seems like an insignificant issue that increases employee theft problems, however if you have a very large company it can become quite costly. On the flip side, if you are a small employer and you only purchase one box of pens, all of them are “borrowed”, your expenses double for office supplies for that item.
Have theft issues in the workplace? For more information contact us at employee theft or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia
