By Kim Zimmermann, Managing Editor
Obviously, there are people in every profession who are going to steal from the company they work for, even if it is a few pens and post-it notes. But in retail, with so many lower-pay, high-turnover positions, the problem can be much more serious than missing office supplies.
I’ve worked in retail and have written about retail for a number of years, but I was still shocked at the number in a recent report from the Volumatic Kount U.S. Retail Fraud Survey 2013. The survey estimates that U.S. retailers lose $54 billion a year from shrink, with 37% of that coming from employee theft.
Advertisement
Technology has come a long way in helping deter employee theft. Databases can flag an employee for further scrutiny if they are processing a high number of returns. RFID tags can make it harder for workers to pilfer products. Loss prevention technology continues to get more sophisticated to keep up with those inside and outside of the organization who are looking to steal.
While these high-tech strategies can catch many dishonest workers, retailers shouldn’t forget about some of the more basic things they can do to combat the problem.
Honest employees can be a retailer’s eyes and ears when it comes to keeping other employees from stealing. I have two examples from my stint working at a home improvement store.
The first involved a young cashier who had been hired as a seasonal employee. They would put him in the garden center, where he was alone most of the time and far from the watchful eyes of supervisors. He seized on the opportunity to have his friends come to his register to purchase large-ticket items using phony $100 bills. The bills looked like Monopoly money, so there was little doubt that he simply overlooked the fake currency. Another cashier turned him in.
The second involved a cashier giving her friend a discount, known as sweethearting. Another cashier saw her doing this and confronted her.
This retailer had a number of loss prevention technologies in place, but it was the honest employees calling out their co-workers that rooted out these thieves.
While retailers still need high-tech crime prevention tools, they shouldn’t overlook honest humans as a first line of defense against employee theft.
