For a small business, employee theft can have a serious impact on the profit margins, and on employee morale.
Employee theft is just one opportunity away – taking certain steps can ensure that the opportunities never arise!
Tips To Reduce The Possibilities Of Stock Theft By Staff!
Here are a few tips to keep your staff from trying to steal your stock!
- Hire employees only after conducting a thorough background check on them.
- Pay attention to pointers like:
- Sudden devotion to work, working late hours.
- Strong objections to procedural changes in inventory or supply matters.
- Evidence of gambling, compulsive borrowing
- The payment, receipt and preparation of purchase orders should be separate functions and handled by different individuals. Use serially pre-numbered purchase orders and always verify incoming orders.
- Install devices like security cameras to monitor merchandise and stock. Consider having access control systems in the stock area.
- Separate receiving, storekeeping and shipping functions. Physical stock counting should be done annually by individuals who are not responsible for entering the stock count in records!
- Provide a way for employees to report a theft by other staff. This needs to be done carefully – you don’t want your employees to think you don’t trust them!
- Another way is to plan employee schedules in a way, that there aren’t too few employees when the store opens or closes.
Remember – Investigate cases of theft thoroughly, before making accusations. False allegations could land you in legal trouble!
For small business loans, get in touch with Gromor!
