As a business owner, you don't want to think about your employees betraying you and committing employee theft when you're not around. You trust they are honest people, but the reality is employee theft is a serious problem. It's unfortunate that individuals feel the need to steal from their workplace, but it does happen.
There are a number of things you can do to deter this type of behaviour. You need to protect yourself and your business by preventing employee theft with an effective cash management solution.
Is Employee Theft Really That Common?
Are you worried about missing cash? It might not be an external issue. Internal shrinkage is a serious problem. According to a recent survey, 33% of all cash and goods that go missing from a business is the result of employee theft. In addition, losses related to employee theft are five times higher than shop lifting losses.
Do your employees have access to cash drawers and/or back offices where cash is kept? You want to protect yourself and your business from dishonest employees, but you can't always be there to keep an eye on things and you can't put blame on all of your employees. This will only cause unnecessary stress and tension.
How Can You Prevent Employee Theft?
Create and enforce policies regarding your cash management process so your employees are aware that you're keeping a close watch on all of the cash coming in and out of the store. They need to know that everything is closely tracked so they don't get the idea that theft will go unnoticed.
Make sure each employee understands what his or her responsibilities are regarding cash. Outline the steps involved with picking up floats for cash drawers, how they get change when they are running low, how they make deposits, and how they reconcile their floats when they're done their shifts. Make sure the employees who are responsible for counting and reconciling cash in the back office are counting every coin and tracking all discrepancies.
A recommended solution for preventing the theft of cash is implementing automated cash management equipment. This will eliminate the possibility of human error. It will save your employees time and energy as they will no longer be required to count and recount their cash drawers. Everything is done automatically. You might not be able to avoid dishonesty in the workplace, but you can minimize the temptation by implementing security measures to prevent access. Your employees will think twice before attempting to steal cash once an automated cash management system is in place.
Implement measures that demonstrate to the staff that every penny is counted by introducing a coin and note recycler that can dispense and reconcile floats. Install security cameras near the tills to discourage the dishonest employees from stealing and protect the honest employees from suspicion.
Rather than cause tension in the workplace by suspecting all of your employees of theft, use an automated cash management solution. This will significantly reduce the risk of employee theft, eliminating unnecessary suspicion toward innocent employees.
