Is Employee Theft Affecting Your Small Business?

Employee Theft Hacking

It’s no doubt that every small business owner or manager has either thought about, or had to deal with employee theft. It’s also not too far-fetched to believe that every employee has either had a “first time” stealing, or has come across an instance where the thought of “is it worth it to take this, and will I get caught?” has occurred.

As a society, we generally stereotype younger employees as more prone to steal at work. While this may be true to a certain extent, we shouldn’t avoid the fact that individuals a bit older are also stealing, or have the ability to steal as well. Within a small business, every owner or manager needs to understand that there are steps one can take to prevent employee theft, no matter how young or old. Things like stopping temptation and theft before it occurs, not leaving cash or other valuables lying around, supervising employees closer, screening new employees better, or installing a fake surveillance camera are all simple ideas many have either thought of or have implemented. But here at ScheduleBase, we want to provide you with a better look at what other types of preventative measures businesses are using today to limit or eliminate employee theft.

Get Serious with Technology

This may be a bit drastic for many small businesses to kick off our list, but it’s definitely something that should be considered if fearing a theft problem. Installing physical monitoring methods like surveillance cameras are the simplest way to catch anyone in the act of stealing. In addition, there is technology called key logging software that you can put on your employee’s PCs in order to monitor their computer usage. You may need this in the future if needing to prove employee theft. Lastly, if your employees have company issued cell phones, it is a good idea to install cell phone monitoring software on their phones. These applications will record and save all the cell phone usage data which can later be used as evidence against them if used in the action of employee theft.

Outsource Bookkeeping

Is your business having issues with checks being cut to fictitious vendors? How about employees who are opening checking accounts with the same name as your business and taking customer checks and depositing them in that account? If so, outsourcing your bookkeeping or simply doing it yourself may be the best possible solution in order to keep this portion of your business under control.

Monitor Time Cards

Time card fraud is a more serious form of workplace time theft. If your business has employees lying on their time cards about hours worked or utilizing “buddy punching,” than it’s time to step up your monitoring of employee attendance to ensure accurate payroll and further employee theft through time.

Protect More Than Your Cash

If you think cash and merchandise in your small business are the only vulnerable items you have, it’s time to think again. Your customer data is one of the most valuable assets you have and can be stolen if you are not careful. Employees who have been fired or are leaving the company usually end up being the culprits of these types of theft cases. To ensure your business doesn’t become victim, you can encrypt your customer data. This will restrict access to your data so you know exactly who is using it.

We all know “most” employees are honest. However, in order to keep them that way, it is in the best interest of any small business to not provide the opportunity to be dishonest. Since there is no certain way of knowing the true intentions of your employees when you hire them, you may possibly have to deal with employee theft at some point during your business ownership or management. When trying to control or eliminate employee theft, there is no need to reinvent the wheel. Keep your plan simple and consistent and it will be effective. There is no reason to wait until workplace theft becomes such an issue that you are left frustrated and broke. Consider taking some of the proactive employee theft preventative measures above and incorporating them into your small business routine today.

About ScheduleBase

ScheduleBase is online employee scheduling software from Atlas Business Solutions, the leader in providing employee scheduling software. In little to no time, businesses can schedule employees online and communicate work schedules by email, text message and mobile device. Put your scheduling online and save time and money, while offering your employees easier access to their schedules and an effective communication tool for you and them.