Employee Theft

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Recommended: Legal consequences of employee theft

Do you want to stop paying for unnecessary expenses, lost assets, and time lost for employees? Seventy five percent of all employees steal at least once, and half of those steal repeatedly, according to an estimate by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (2012). Another study done by Kessler & Associates (1999) reported that 79% of workers admit that they have considered or would consider stealing from their employers!
The main point of this paper is to touch on the employee theft problem and understand what causes it, how to differentiate its different types, and how to solve it and prevent it from happening.
Employee theft is clearly an ethical issue that companies are facing. The financial consequences of this problem have no limits in terms of …show more content…

A clear and specific position has to be held in regards to this problem. Bending rules, cutting corners and breaking policy are clear examples of how the management can contribute to creating an environment for employees’ theft actions.
• Theft and fraud categories
Employees have different ways to steal from a company. Whenever we hear the phrase “employee theft”, the first thought that comes to our mind is an employee stealing money from the cash register. While this happens often, there are many other ways to steal from the company. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reported that the most common types of employee theft are:
1- Larceny: Defined as the unlawful taking of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it permanently. It involves an employee stealing cash or property from the employer.
2- Skimming: Refers to the removal of cash from an organization before it has been recorded and is therefore referred to as an “off-the-books” crime.
3- Fraudulent disbursements: A form of theft that describes employees using the company’s own systems in an illegal way to benefit themselves. It can be broken into 4 types: check tampering, billing schemes, payroll schemes and expense reimbursement …show more content…

It is wise to do so for any candidate before hiring him or her. A candidate with a habit of stealing or who has stolen at least once would have more of a tendency to steal again. Contacting and checking the candidate’s references and former employer could help a great deal in determining a candidate’s past and future behavior.

- Tip line
Terrence Shulman, founder of The Shulman Center for Compulsive Theft, Spending & Hoarding, stated that “If people know that their fellow co-workers are watching out for theft, they will think twice before stealing because there are higher odds they will be caught.” Have a way for employees to report suspicious behavior and report thefts. Considering everyone is watching everyone would extremely stop employees of stealing.
- Audit
The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners recommend businesses to conduct a routine 6-12 month audit for violations. Employers have to do this, especially in high risk areas of their business and that may include cash, payroll and computer usage audit. By doing so, employees will know they are going to be accounted and audited, which will prevent them from planning to steal. This can act as a prevention not only a detection

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