There are probably many reasons why employees may steal from their employer. Some may feel that they can get away with it or that they need the items they are stealing. More often than not, the most plausible reason why people would risk stealing from their employer is a feeling of dissatisfaction or frustration with their job, management or the employer itself. They may feel their work goes unrecognized or that they aren't compensated enough for their time.
Others may feel that they have given X amount of time to the employer over several years and haven’t been properly compensated; this constitutes the feeling of a right to entitlement. Over the last two years an increase in employee theft has been documented across all businesses both big and small, this may be a sign of the economic times, however sometimes the theft comes from employees that have been with the same company for many years and these people feel cheated, albeit a feeling from a warped frustrated mind. Therefore they believe they have the RIGHT to steal to make up for the loss they feel inside. This documented theft has risen by almost a third, yet only 20% of employees polled would say that employee theft is a moderate to a big problem.
Most employees who are caught make excuses about why their theft is rational, but the bottom line is that it is unacceptable behavior and definitely should not be tolerated in any work place. To most honest, non-stealing employees, there is a feeling of dismay, however others may sit back and quietly watch as others pillage their workplace. Most of the silent watchers feel that the place they work in does not hire valuable and trustworthy employees.
As a result the morale of the teams involved with the company goes down and further robs the company of potential revenues by attitude alone. It can also be recognized that an increase in employee stealing means a decrease in profits for the business, more often than not the company must make up for those losses in some way or another, most likely in the form of wage freeze or employee cutbacks. This again robs the business because now you cannot sufficiently serve your customer base, CSI drops and the business loses customers.
I have personally witnessed the right to entitlement in a dealership I counseled. The theft was rampant from previous management on down to employees entrusted to serve the dealership clientele. Management was committing warranty fraud and everyone from the service consultants to the technicians were benefitting from this by reaping larger compensation checks. Once the manufacturer caught on to the game there was a warranty audit conducted and the employer was forced to pay back over $200,000 worth of ill-gotten money.
Once the audit was conducted the employer cracked down and forced management to scrutinize the warranty claims. Unfortunately it didn’t end with just fraudulent claims. Once the warranty scheme was uncovered the employees needed to find new ways to top up their incomes that would not easily be detected, so they openly advocated to customers, “Discounts for tips”. You read that last sentence right, “Discounts for tips”!
The quiet disposition of revenues to employee’s pockets was taking place and other long-term employees turned a blind eye towards the new scheme. In my mind that makes most players involved or not accomplices to the act of a new and even more sinister type of fraud. The employer was not aware of the situation because management was once again involved and providing cover. The total revenue lost per month was into the thousands of dollars and could have been caught had the employer been directly involved in overseeing the effective labor rate, hours per RO and dollars per RO.
Within weeks of this coming to light numerous people quit, were fired or went to senior managers pleading ignorance. My advice to most employers is to monitor your numbers and unfortunately get directly involved in your day-to-day operations and study your numbers religiously. You cannot afford to have thieves running your business, especially long-term committed thieves. One quote I heard from employees was this, “So and so would say he put all his kids through college on the tips he took out of the business”.
One last thought – “INSPECT WHAT YOU EXPECT”!
David
