Some business owners focus all of their attention on mitigating the risks posed by external threats. While there are a number of external threats to worry about, you also need to worry about threats from within. Unfortunately, employee theft is an extremely common problem for business owners around the world.
A recent study found that businesses in the United States lose over $110 million a day due to employee theft. Below is more information about types of employee theft and how to prevent these problems from happening.
Employee Theft Comes In Many Forms
One of the biggest misconceptions business owners have is that the only type of employee theft involves stealing money. In reality, employee theft comes in many forms.
Time theft is a term used to describe when an employee gets paid for hours they haven’t actually worked. Generally, this type of theft occurs when an employee can manipulate timekeeping data.
Merchandise theft is where an employee takes products/services offered by the business they work for without paying for them. Monetary theft happens when an employee steals money from a cash register or commits credit card fraud. Some employees steal the supplies they work with. These supplies can include everything from computers to silverware.
Now that you know more about the types of employee theft, we will discuss how to prevent them from happening.
Restrict Access To Certain Parts of Your Business
Providing every employee you have unfettered access to sensitive information or expensive inventory is a horrible idea. Making this mistake will leave your business vulnerable, which is why you need to make some changes. Ideally, you only want the people that absolutely need access to the sensitive information or expensive inventory in question.
One of the best ways to restrict access to certain parts of your business is by investing in an access control system. With the implementation of this technology, you can decide who can enter certain rooms. An access control system also allows you to track who comes and goes from particular areas. This will be extremely helpful if theft occurs and you need to figure out which employee did it.
Don’t Underestimate The Importance of Security Cameras
If you want to keep employees on their best behavior, you need to work on putting certain deterrents in place. Employees that feel like they aren’t being watched will be emboldened to take things that don’t belong to them. Removing a bad employee’s ability to steal is possible if you invest in a security camera system.
If an employee knows they are being watched by security cameras, they will think twice about taking things that don’t belong to them. Ideally, you want to hire professionals to install your new security cameras to ensure they are properly positioned. These professionals can also help you choose the right security camera system for your business building.
Rather than waiting until employee theft occurs, you need to take measures to prevent this problem. By using the tips in this article, you can lower the chance of employee theft.