by Chaz Philips

Created on: October 24, 2009

"Keep the Hay in the Barn!" Keep More Profits-You've Earned Them, Now Keep Them!

Thieves are everywhere.

Some of them work for you.

Most of them for too long...

Reducing employee theft is the fastest way to increase profit because the dollars saved flow straight through to the bottom line.

Why worry about it? Only 2 percent of all employees who steal in a year are caught. And that low total does not even include theft by vendors, guests and scam artists.

Are small businesses truly more vulnerable? Security experts advise that small business enterprises may be particularly vulnerable to internal theft. Smaller firms often include employees with multiple responsibilities that provide greater opportunity to commit theft and greater means to conceal such actions.

What is the "real" rate of employee theft? Approximately 40 percent of employees steal at least one item per year. Inventory loss through theft exceeds 5 percent of the cost of goods sold. Seventy-five percent of business losses are a result of employees. The average dollar loss per employee theft case is $1,762. Employee theft losses, passed on to the consumer, cost each American $400 annually. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that an employee is fifteen times more likely than a non employee to steal from a business.

Why such a focus on employee theft? Internal theft of money or goods from employees is a primary cause of a significant percentage of small business failures. The Department of Commerce estimates that employee theft and embezzlement activities accounted for one out of five business failures, many of which were smaller firms that were unable to weather the erosion that those activities brought to their bottom lines.

"We have never had an employee theft!" Really? Don't bet on it: 75 percent of employee-related crimes go unnoticed. Sixty percent of all employee theft is for non-cash items. There are over 400 known ways that employees can steal from their employers, and new ways are constantly being discovered.

Again: reducing employee theft is the fastest way to increase profit because the dollars saved flow straight through to the bottom line.

The "numbers" and "data" around internal theft are almost incomprehensible:

* An overwhelming 79 percent of workers admit they have or would consider stealing from their employers.

* 43 percent of thieves said they do it to get back at their employer.

* Cameras are unlikely to pick up on theft since would-be thieves can stay out of their range.

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