Five Tips for Stamping Out Employee Theft

Theft by employees can be among the top concerns of small to midsize business owners.

Following are some tips to help owners prevent employee theft:

• Employee background checks can be extremely helpful in the hiring process to determine the best candidate for the job. A credit history report will tell you whether or not a person has handled money responsibly.

• Once employees are selected, institute policies and procedures that protect the business. Establish accounting procedures that give no one person all the control. For example, one person may record payments received and another may handle deposits.

• Regular audits are a natural part of business. However, unannounced audits are a good indicator of what is truly going on in the accounting department. There should be no difference in results whether employees know that an audit is coming or if one is done at another random time.

• Have an open-door policy to build the trust of your employees. When they feel something is off, they can feel comfortable enough to come in and tell you about it and they will know it will be investigated.

• Another avenue is a confidential hotline employees can call to report suspicious activity. Here, they may give information without the threat of retaliation from another employee.

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Five Tips for Stamping Out Employee Theft

Five Tips for Stamping Out Employee Theft