Warn Employees of Theft Audits

It’s bad when employees steal from you. How about when they steal from your customers?
     Researchers at Texas Christian University set up their experimental situation by leaving loose change inside a car brought to a full service car wash. In some of the cars, the researchers had also placed a copy of Maxim magazine with its photos of scantily dressed women, on the front seat and a crushed beer can on the floor. The research question was whether these cars had more money stolen than from debris-free cars.
     The findings: In the cleaner cars, cash was taken about a third of the time. In the cars with the magazine and crushed can, the thievery rate was about double.
     Why? The researchers’ answer is that employees at the car wash probably considered the drivers of cars with Maxim and beer as “deviant” and therefore more suitable to be victimized.
     One response I have to this is that all customers, even those who drink and gawk, deserve to be treated with integrity. Calling shoppers deviant becomes a license for prejudice.
     Another response I have to the findings is that those more likely to have money stolen may have been seen as messy, not morally deviant. Hey, you take your vehicle to the car wash for the full deal service and it looks like you didn’t even notice you left a beer can and magazine in the front seat. Odds are fair you won’t notice it if, while removing the can and closing the magazine, I also tidy up some of your loose change.
     “The money was asking to be taken,” some retail employees might say. After all, even in the non-Maxim, not-beer-can car, money was stolen a third of the time.
     Now let’s bring the discussion back to include the theft of merchandise or cash from you:

• 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 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. At the car wash, employees could be told there will be “loose change temptation” checks from time to time. 

Click below for more: 
Psych Out Employee Theft 
Tally Tradeoffs in Paying for Honesty