When you suspect an employee of stealing from your business the employee theft investigation is broken down into two main components: The Fact Finding, and The Interview. During the first part, all efforts are spent on separating fact from fiction, and solidifying the who, what, when and where. The interview section is designed to corroborate the evidence and to determine why it happened.
The starting point of conducting an employee theft investigation is garnering a lead. That could be a suspicion based on your own personal observations, a lead from another employee, or information that has shown up on a report (cash over/ short log, exception report, etc). Wherever you get the information from, it should start you in the direction of where, and possibly whom you need to investigate.
Based upon this information, you need to start to narrow down the scope of the losses. If you have a till that was short one day, you would start to reduce the number of suspected employees. By reviewing transactions, employee numbers used, CCTV surveillance, you should be able to eliminate possible suspects. Sometimes it might be from tracking multiple losses over a period of several weeks or months to establish a pattern; sometimes you might find who the employee is based off of a single incident.
With merchandise losses, you would work the process in a similar fashion. Determine a starting point- was it a specific item of merchandise that went missing? Maybe it was an incident with a specific employee that raised the red flags. From this starting point continue to further investigate to see if you can substantiate this initial incident.
Once you have solidified who took what merchandise on which date and at what time, expand your search to see if this particular employee can be traced back to other losses using this same method. Also look to see if this employee is using multiple ways to steal, and if there are other employees involved.
One particular employee made a rather large purchase. Upon review of the journal tape, only a portion of the items was rung up. After reviewing the employees purchase history, it was determined that he had made several purchases where only a portion of the product was rung up to be sold. By reviewing multiple transactions, we found that there were at least three employees involved in under-ringing the employee’s purchases. We then looked at the employee purchases for the employees who had been the cashiers in these instances, and found that they too had made similar purchases.
Had we not continued to research, we would not have discovered just how much merchandise had actually been stolen. We also would not have known about the other three employees, potentially leaving them in their current positions to continue to steal from our store. We would have suffered even more losses due to the incomplete investigation.
The ways to successfully complete an investigation into employee theft are as varied as the actual methods used in those thefts. The end results, however should be the same- you can provide specific information as to which employee stole what product at this specific point in time.
For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.
When you suspect an employee of stealing from your business the employee theft investigation is broken down into two main components: The Fact Finding, and The Interview. During the first part, all efforts are spent on separating fact from fiction, and solidifying the who, what, when and where. The interview section is designed to corroborate the evidence and to determine why it happened.
The starting point of conducting an employee theft investigation is garnering a lead. That could be a suspicion based on your own personal observations, a lead from another employee, or information that has shown up on a report (cash over/ short log, exception report, etc). Wherever you get the information from, it should start you in the direction of where, and possibly whom you need to investigate.
Based upon this information, you need to start to narrow down the scope of the losses. If you have a till that was short one day, you would start to reduce the number of suspected employees. By reviewing transactions, employee numbers used, CCTV surveillance, you should be able to eliminate possible suspects. Sometimes it might be from tracking multiple losses over a period of several weeks or months to establish a pattern; sometimes you might find who the employee is based off of a single incident.
With merchandise losses, you would work the process in a similar fashion. Determine a starting point- was it a specific item of merchandise that went missing? Maybe it was an incident with a specific employee that raised the red flags. From this starting point continue to further investigate to see if you can substantiate this initial incident.
Once you have solidified who took what merchandise on which date and at what time, expand your search to see if this particular employee can be traced back to other losses using this same method. Also look to see if this employee is using multiple ways to steal, and if there are other employees involved.
One particular employee made a rather large purchase. Upon review of the journal tape, only a portion of the items was rung up. After reviewing the employees purchase history, it was determined that he had made several purchases where only a portion of the product was rung up to be sold. By reviewing multiple transactions, we found that there were at least three employees involved in under-ringing the employee’s purchases. We then looked at the employee purchases for the employees who had been the cashiers in these instances, and found that they too had made similar purchases.
Had we not continued to research, we would not have discovered just how much merchandise had actually been stolen. We also would not have known about the other three employees, potentially leaving them in their current positions to continue to steal from our store. We would have suffered even more losses due to the incomplete investigation.
The ways to successfully complete an investigation into employee theft are as varied as the actual methods used in those thefts. The end results, however should be the same- you can provide specific information as to which employee stole what product at this specific point in time.
For more information on employee theft, employee theft investigation or internal theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 – Atlanta Georgia
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase CCTV Systems that can help you stop Employee Theft and Internal Theft problems and help with your Employee Theft Investigation.
A popular recruiting tool is to set up an employee referral program. The underlying premise is that birds of a feather flock together, or good employees have friends and acquaintances that will potentially also make good employees. It is an alternative kind of employee background check, one where a current employee provides the validation for the referral.
When you have two friends working together you are prone to have two completely different experiences as a result of their familiarity. One of the positives is that the current employee will help to self govern the referral employee. When you put your stamp of approval on someone, you want them to be successful because it then ads to your own success and credibility. If the referral employee turns out to be a dud, that can tarnish your reputation, so you are more likely to offer advice and guidance to help keep that employee on track.
Because the employee is giving you an unofficial pre employment screening, you have a deeper insight about the referral than if this person applied directly from the street. You can ask the employee’s opinion of the referral, and quite often will get much more information about where they work, why they are looking for a job, etc than an application would ever tell you.
Keep in mind that there are questions that you still legally cannot ask. These are the same ones that you legally cannot ask any applicant. Some things are better left for a professional employee background check, instead of a privacy violation caused by drilling someone’s friend.
Of course the downside is that relying on information from a friend can be unreliable and biased. If you were fired for stealing from your last job, would you tell your friend, or would you only tell them that you were out of work and looking for a job? Friends, no matter how close, may not actually know the full story, or their friend’s work habits and ethics. Just because someone is a good friend does not necessarily make him or her a good employee.
When two friends are working the same shift together, there is a potential for a negative work ethic to come into play. It might be as innocuous as two friends spending their work shifts gossiping and joking around instead of actually doing productive work. It is also more likely that two friends, who have a longer history together outside of work, will turn to employee theft. Because the requisite trust needed to steal together is already there, it is much easier for employees who are friends to create and execute schemes to steal from your company. It is also more likely that a dishonest employee will knowingly refer a friend with the intention that this particular friend will help make it easier for the employee to steal.
A few safeguards that you can put into place are to not hire friends, relatives, etc. when the referring employee is management. You can also decrease the likelihood of negative actions if the two friends are scheduled opposite shifts. Then there will be very few opportunities to slack on the job, or worse, to steal.
Employee referrals are a good place to find applications, as long as you keep in mind that there are basic hiring procedures designed to help ensure a better quality candidate. Employee background checks are vital to the process, regardless of where an application comes from.
To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547
A popular recruiting tool is to set up an employee referral program. The underlying premise is that birds of a feather flock together, or good employees have friends and acquaintances that will potentially also make good employees. It is an alternative kind of employee background check, one where a current employee provides the validation for the referral.
When you have two friends working together you are prone to have two completely different experiences as a result of their familiarity. One of the positives is that the current employee will help to self govern the referral employee. When you put your stamp of approval on someone, you want them to be successful because it then ads to your own success and credibility. If the referral employee turns out to be a dud, that can tarnish your reputation, so you are more likely to offer advice and guidance to help keep that employee on track.
Because the employee is giving you an unofficial pre employment screening, you have a deeper insight about the referral than if this person applied directly from the street. You can ask the employee’s opinion of the referral, and quite often will get much more information about where they work, why they are looking for a job, etc than an application would ever tell you.
Keep in mind that there are questions that you still legally cannot ask. These are the same ones that you legally cannot ask any applicant. Some things are better left for a professional employee background check, instead of a privacy violation caused by drilling someone’s friend.
Of course the downside is that relying on information from a friend can be unreliable and biased. If you were fired for stealing from your last job, would you tell your friend, or would you only tell them that you were out of work and looking for a job? Friends, no matter how close, may not actually know the full story, or their friend’s work habits and ethics. Just because someone is a good friend does not necessarily make him or her a good employee.
When two friends are working the same shift together, there is a potential for a negative work ethic to come into play. It might be as innocuous as two friends spending their work shifts gossiping and joking around instead of actually doing productive work. It is also more likely that two friends, who have a longer history together outside of work, will turn to employee theft. Because the requisite trust needed to steal together is already there, it is much easier for employees who are friends to create and execute schemes to steal from your company. It is also more likely that a dishonest employee will knowingly refer a friend with the intention that this particular friend will help make it easier for the employee to steal.
A few safeguards that you can put into place are to not hire friends, relatives, etc. when the referring employee is management. You can also decrease the likelihood of negative actions if the two friends are scheduled opposite shifts. Then there will be very few opportunities to slack on the job, or worse, to steal.
Employee referrals are a good place to find applications, as long as you keep in mind that there are basic hiring procedures designed to help ensure a better quality candidate. Employee background checks are vital to the process, regardless of where an application comes from.
To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547
Any time there is an opportunity for money to be made, there is an opportunity for someone to find was to work the system. School Bookstores and school libraries are not exempt from these kinds of opportunists. Take a school textbook buyback program, for example. Offered as a way to help students defray some of the costs incurred by the expensive textbooks required for class, buybacks also open themselves up for students to take advantage of.
For the most part, the used books coming back in during these buy backs are ones that have been legitimately purchased through a students normal course of studies. Once the class has been completed, students can sell the books to make room for new ones, and put the money from the sale towards these new texts.
However, every year, school campuses report multiple incidents of theft of school textbooks. Some of the theft is students stealing other student’s textbooks in public places like school libraries, student unions or cafeterias. Other theft is coming directly from school bookstores in the form of common shoplifting.
Once a student has stolen a textbook in their possession, they can bring it back in to sell as a used book. School libraries and school bookstores need to formulate plans to increase their security to reduce these on campus thefts, and reduce fraudulent book buybacks.
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Bookstore Security and Library Theft Detection System devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop inventory losses.
For more information on Checkpoint Systems and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention to stop inventory losses in your College Bookstores, School Bookstores, School Libraries, High School Library, or High School Bookstore call 1.770.426.0547
Any time there is an opportunity for money to be made, there is an opportunity for someone to find ways to work the system. School Bookstores and school libraries are not exempt from these kinds of opportunists. Take a school textbook buyback program, for example. Offered as a way to help students defray some of the costs incurred by the expensive textbooks required for class, buybacks also open themselves up for students to take advantage of.
For the most part, the used books coming back in during these buy backs are ones that have been legitimately purchased through a students normal course of studies. Once the class has been completed, students can sell the books to make room for new ones, and put the money from the sale towards these new texts.
However, every year, school campuses report multiple incidents of theft of school textbooks. Some of the theft is students stealing other student’s textbooks in public places like school libraries, student unions or cafeterias. Other theft is coming directly from school bookstores in the form of common shoplifting.
Once a student has stolen a textbook in their possession, they can bring it back in to sell as a used book. School libraries and school bookstores need to formulate plans to increase their security to reduce these on campus thefts, and reduce fraudulent book buybacks.
Visit the Loss Prevention Store to purchase Bookstore Security and Library Theft Detection System devices and your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems to stop inventory losses.
For more information on Checkpoint Systems and how they can work with your Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system contact us at Retail theft prevention to stop inventory losses in your College Bookstores, School Bookstores, School Libraries, High School Library, or High School Bookstore call 1.770.426.0547
