According to the federal government in the USA, employee theft is one of the biggest problems for small businesses. According to the federal reports, the data is quite astounding; an employee is 15 times more likely to steal the products from the employers of small businesses.
Most of the stealing cases we come across are small businesses; employees stealing the products count to 44%. According to Chaney Law Firm, employee stealing is an important reason why more than 40% of businesses fail during their first year.
Employers and businesses are concerned about these practices. Here are some of the most common forms that employee stealing takes.
- Fraudulent disbursements.
- Embezzlement of raw material.
- Stealing business opportunities.
How To Deal With Employees’ Theft And Frauds?
It has been seen that employees who come into the habit of stealing from the organization are all senior employees. In fact, the average of stealing years is 3 years before they are caught. That’s really a lot of time to generate hefty losses for the businesses.
Here are a few things that you can do to stop employees from stealing and their fraudulent activities.
Know Your employees
You must have the correct idea about your employees, and you must know them well. It will help you to understand what steps they can take in the future. Some of the common parameters in this regard are as follows:
- Devotion To work.
- What is their mode of Lifestyle above theory salary levels?
- Strong objections that you can carry for your supply chain levels or the procedural changes regarding any financial matter.
- They are addicted to alcohol or other drugs. You must know about this fact in detail.
- Are they involved in any gambling activity or any other bad check writing?
Supervise Your Employees
Studies show that you must have the proper supervision over your employees to reduce the possibilities of theft and fraud in the best possible manner. You cannot consider things for granted here.
Close supervision at a certain point of time will properly reduce the theft’s scope. You can also take control over your employees by binding them to a privacy policy contract with the help of corporate lawyers.
Control Cash Receipts
It is important that you keep track of your cash slips. You can do that by giving every cash slip a pre serial number to keep track of the payslip. This practice will also help you restrict yourself from giving out unauthorized payslips.
Weekly audits are the best way to keep track of any potential fraudulent activity. Balancing the sales slip and register slip should be done by personnel, not from the sales departments.
Install Computer Security Measures
You can install computer security measures to stop the chances of theft. You can take the help off the CCTV cameras to keep an eye on the employees’ activities. It will help you to track all the activities of the employees in the best possible manner.
Even if you do not take help from the CCTVs, it can break the employees’ morale and threaten them not to be a part of any fraudulent activities.
Track You Business Checks
When it comes to dealing with business transactions, it is important that you are dealing with pre-written checks. Here, with pre-pre-written checks, we mean that the check has been generated by the organization with every detail filled with permanent ink to ensure that no fraudulent activity occurs in the business’s financial flow.
You can use software to produce checks. For instance, you can use QuickBooks. It is a handy software that scans the signature of the check to gauge its authenticity.
Take Away
Employee theft and fraudulent activity happen due to two primary reasons. One, your employees are not happy with what they are getting on their payroll. And second, you have made a mistake in choosing an employee who will one day backstab you.
The best way to ensure your employees have not affiliated themselves with fraudulent activity is by integrating the security measures we have just mentioned above and asking your HRs to look for candidates on whom you can show your trust.