Employee Theft. In my opinion, it is one of the most devastating things that can happen. Especially to a small business owner.
I'm not talking about missing pencils or an occasional soda. I'm talking about when an employee deliberately steals cash or product from you.
If you have been in business for a while, usually know the feeling. If you are new to your business, you will eventually have it happen. What is both sad and funny is that many owners refuse to believe that it is happening. Worse, many don't know what to do about it.
Just the other day, an owner called us because some employees are leaving the cash drawers open and working directly out of the cash in the drawer. When we hear this, we figure the employee is not ringing in transactions and then pocketing the cash. I've discussed many ways to help stop this in the past- multiple cash drawers, assigning employees to drawers, fingerprint id, pole displays and more.
The bottom line is you have to have a firm policy that includes verbal and written reprimands with the ultimate penalty being that the offender is fired.
It will be hard, but in most cases, you will find that the rest of the crew knew it was happening and is glad the offending person is gone.
