Transcript of HR Podcast Episode #27: Employee Theft Statistics and What You Can Do To Protect Your Business
Listen to the audio (7 mins, 49 secs)
An estimated 50 billion dollars are lost annually from US businesses due to employee theft. Stats show that, a whopping 75% of all employees have stolen from their employers at least once.
Furthermore, statistics show that nearly 50% of these very same employees will likely steal at least a second time from the very same employer These are sobering statistics !
What is workplace theft and how can you prevent it? Quite simply, anything that you purchase as part of your normal course of business that is taken without your permission is considered workplace or employee theft.
This can range from using paid work time to take care of personal business, taking a box of pens, or something extreme like stealing a lap top.
Stealing money is one workplace theft statistic, that impacts businesses by the tune of 50 billion dollars lost each year.
One of the most common types of workplace theft is falsifying information on time sheets and reporting time not worked. Stealing office supplies or other office resources is a another prevalent issue.
Retailers face issues on a regular basis with employee theft such as employees who overcharge customers and then pocket the extra cash that they charged.
One statistic that left me dumbstruck is the fact that employee theft has been the root cause of about 33% of all bankruptcies no matter the type of business.
These statistics show that the majority of employee theft flies under the radar and is undetected by supervisors or upper management. This makes it easy to overlook when subtle forms of employee theft are taking place, such as time or intellectual property theft, because it may not show up on the company ledgers.
So, what can you do to prevent these types of crimes? First off, you must have a policy in place that clearly outlines your zero-tolerance policy and then act swiftly when you are presented with a situation where an employee is caught stealing, even if it is their first time doing so.
You’ll also want to consider conducting criminal background checks before hiring any new employee, to weed out those with a history of theft.
A note of caution: You‘ll want to be sure to have a very solid hiring practice in place. You must apply criminal background checks consistently ; that is, don’t just perform background checks on people who you suspect may be less than trustworthy.
You must perform background checks on all potential hires, or at least all candidates who are applying for jobs where they are handling money for example in order to not be perceived as discriminating against some job applicants over others.
You should also reserve these types of background checks to only your final candidates: the ones whom you are checking references on and are likely to hire. Don’t waste time and money checking criminal background checks on each candidate that you interview. In some states in the U.S., it could even be illegal, so be careful.
If you are a small business owner, or any company for that matter who may need to do background checks for particular jobs, my recommended resource is an instant background check service called Intellius. As of the date of that this was produced which is June of 2011, an individual criminal background check is $29.95 which is $10 off their regular price. Once again, I want to emphasize that if you use this or any service, be sure to remember that you should be consistent with how you apply these types of checks as mentioned in the podcast. Criminal background checks are a very useful tool that could save you time and money in the long run, but you want to use it wisely.
If you’d like to use my affiliate link to check out the service, go to easysmallbusinesshr.com/criminalcheck.
There is also a really good book on what every employer and HR professional needs to know when thinking about conducting any type of background check with information on the laws surrounding background checks.
You can check out this resource at easysmallbusinesshr.com/criminalcheckbook: 
Here’s to your success and thank you as always for listening!
Dianne Shaddock is the President of Easy Small Business HR, Employee Hiring and Managing Tips and the author of the ebook “How To Supervise: What Your Boss Never Told You Before You Took the Job“, A Step-By-Step Guide For New and Seasoned Managers.
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