Employee theft isn’t something you hear about often, but shockingly, it’s more common than we think. Every year, companies lose about 5% of revenue to acts of employee fraud. With 95% of all businesses falling victim to these crimes, companies need to know what signs to look for to prevent it from happening.
Employee theft can happen with any employee at any level. Most of the time, these acts occur because of spite, opportunity and lack of consequences from the employer. Unhappy employees with low motivation are one of the leading culprits for these crimes. When employees are disengaged and not performing adequately, this may be a red flag.
Oftentimes, employees don’t think that they will be caught or that engaging in acts of theft will have any impact on the company. For example, someone who works in retail might believe that the company won’t even notice an item is missing. In fact, 24% of employees say they thought it was okay to steal an item from their employer if the company had multiples of that item.
If employees aren’t being monitored, it provides greater opportunity for them to engage in theft. There’s no reason you need to be down your employee’s necks every second, but there should be clear policies set in place. Communicate these policies to your employees, educate them on employee theft and help them understand the consequences.
The workplace is ever-changing and with so many companies now working remotely, it can make it harder to detect and prevent acts of theft from happening. It may be hard to understand how employees can commit these crimes out of office, but some of the most common acts of theft can happen from virtually anywhere.
Some of the most common types of theft when working remotely include data theft, intellectual theft and time theft. Though some of these crimes often go unnoticed for quite some time, there are many signs businesses can look out for that may be able to indicate that these acts are happening.
So what are these signs and how can employers properly monitor their employees while working from home?
JW Surety bonds created this visual that helps us understand everything we need to know about how to prevent employee theft from happening in the workplace.
Taking the time to implement proper strategies will save your business money and help protect and prevent these crimes from happening.
