Psych Out Employee Theft

If an employees steals from you, you have a snake in the grass. That term is defined by The Free Dictionary as “a deceitful or treacherous person.”
     Fewer of those thieves would have committed their crimes if they’d had doubts they would get away with it. So psych out the tempted. “Psych out” is defined by The Free Dictionary as “The act or an instance of undermining someone's confidence by psychological means.”
     One tactic is to keep merchandise itself from becoming a snake in the grass. I coined this term just now to describe items which are so easy to steal, it’s almost as if they walk off by themselves. My coining was inspired by a current posting on a National Retail Federation blog. This posting reported an interview with Kelly Gorman, Vice President of Loss Prevention for pet specialty retailer PETCO. According to the posting, Ms. Gorman comments how loss prevention people are accustomed to scolding store employees, “It didn’t just get up and walk away,” but when it comes to PETCO merchandise, maybe it did, in fact, get up and walk away. Or slither away.

• Keep the storage areas in your store unlocked only to the degree necessary. Require an employee who is thinking of stealing to acknowledge that the thievery will involve a series of dishonest steps.
• In staff training, periodically give evidence of how employee theft damages the organization. Do not discuss the topic at every training session, though. Research suggests the frequency makes thievery seem to your employees almost routinely expected.
• Inform employees you’ll be conducting surprise audits.

     As a rule, retailing staff consider it wrong to steal from their employer. Conscientiously maintain an atmosphere where it is difficult for employees to rationalize theft by saying, “It was asking to be stolen.”