How to Stop Staff From Stealing
Employee theft is a large problem in the business world. Whether it is money, food or supplies, it's important to protect your assets and minimize your loss. There are many precautions that you can take to try to keep theft to a minimum. These precautions start before each employee is hired and continue throughout the entire employment. It's important to know that anyone can steal, even someone who may appear as a very honest and trustworthy person.
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Instructions
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Run a background check on every potential employee. This will provide you with information regarding any legal trouble that the person has been in.
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Require each potential employee to provide multiple work references. Call these references and verify that the person has not been caught stealing from previous employers. If someone is unwilling to provide work references, assume there's a reason for that. He could be trying to hide something from you.
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Explain the rules and expectations to each employee. Everyone needs to know exactly what is expected from them and what will result in punishment or termination. For example, if someone is working with money, she needs to know exactly how many dollars her till can be short before more action is taken. Stick with the rules. If employees are told they'll be written up for missing anything more than two dollars, you need to write them up every time, regardless of any excuse they may have.
Explain that taking home items -- whether it be food, office supplies or anything else -- without authorization or paying for them is considered stealing and will not be tolerated. Set guidelines for write-ups and terminations. Set a "three strikes you're out" policy, but make it known that severe infractions will result in immediate termination.
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Perform audits. This can include counting money at unexpected times, either large-scale or smaller-scale, such as a cashier's drawer. Look for missing money along with extra money. Extra money could be a sign that the employee is taking money from customers but not entering the sale into the system. The employee can then pocket this money, with the money in the drawer still coming out to the correct amount.
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Count product and supplies. For example, if you work in a restaurant and notice steaks are going missing, count the steaks every few hours. This will help narrow down the potential suspects if something does go missing, because you'll know exactly who was working at that time. Another method of theft protection in a food service environment is not letting people take home improperly-made food. If an employee knows he can take home a hamburger if he simply messes up the order, he might do it on purpose so he has something to eat at the end of the day. This will result in lost product and lost profit.
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Set up cameras to deter employees from stealing. These work in two ways: they scare employees into not stealing and they can be used as evidence if something does happen.
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Set up a suspicious employee by adding extra money to a till. When the employee's shift ends, the cash register should contain the same amount of extra money as it did at the beginning. This can help detect if an employee is counting the money himself and pocketing any extra.
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References
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