Employee theft isn’t always about money. Sometimes, there are emotions associated with it, too. You, the business owner, trust this employee with your business. You fail to do the inventory and count the cash a day or two, and you’re already losing a huge chunk of your income? You forget to do your job for two days, and an employee thinks that they can get away with it?
Fortunately, there are many ways to fight off employee theft. In many cities and particularly in McKinney, Texas, monthly bookkeeping services are quite normal. You can hire a bookkeeping service to manage the inventory and cash or credit sales of your business. This is the easiest way for you to detect if employees are dipping their hands into the cookie jar.
Have Systems in Place
If your employees are aware that there’s an accounting system in place, they won’t try to get around it too much. They know that they can get caught if they steal something. That’s one thing you have to understand about employee theft. These employees don’t want to be caught. They don’t want to lose their jobs. If they have to choose between stealing and keeping their jobs, they’ll choose the latter. If they get caught, they are going to apologize profusely so that you won’t fire them.
So the best deterrent to employee theft is to put in place a system that will make them fearful of stealing. Regular inventory, a cash register, and bookkeeping services will help deter employees from stealing products and cash. For example, the best place to monitor your cash earning is to know the amount of cash in the register at the start of the day. Add to that the cash and credit card sales at the end of the day, and that’s your total sales for the day.
Update Your Employee Records
Make it a habit to update your employee records every month or so. Ask them to fill out an information sheet containing their present address, phone numbers, and other important things. You can use this record to go after them if they leave their positions after being proven to have stolen things. Since they know that you have their contact information, they are less likely to do something that will put them in trouble.
Install a Surveillance Camera
A surveillance camera will tell you many things. Make sure that you have remote access to it so that you can watch your employees from wherever you may be. Watch closely for telltale signs of stealing such as bills passing from the cash register to the employee’s pockets, bills going to the tip jar from the register, strange habits around the products, accessing the safety boxes repeatedly, and going to the store after business hours.
Talk to the Employee
When you have enough evidence that the employee is stealing from your business, set up a meeting. Instead of accusing them, ask the employees about what they know about the missing cash or item. If you have evidence, present the evidence and wait for an explanation. Be careful about firing the employee right there. Consider the contract you have signed. If there are any provisions there that might be used against your business, you can be facing a labor problem in court. Gather your wits and decide accordingly after a thorough investigation.
If this usually happens to you, try to figure out why employees are stealing from you. Do you have a lax system? Are you not compensating them well? While thievery is wrong, you may also be doing things that are detrimental to your relationships with your employees.
