How can you reduce employee theft?
Theft by employees is a major issue for firms, with cost estimates at around $200 million each year. The most common form of employee theft is ‘sweethearting’. Sweethearting is when employees give products away for free to preferred customers and is typically done by people operating the cash register in stores.
New research from Michigan State University suggests that better recruitment is the best way to prevent this form of employee theft. The research is one of the first studies to investigate sweethearting in isolation.
The research team investigated over 800 service employees in hotels, restaurants, tanning salons and several other similar service industries. Alarmingly, 67% of participants said they had participated in sweethearting in the last two months. The primary motivation was to receive better tips from their favoured customers or a similar sweetheart deal when they in turn shopped at the customers premises.
“I was surprised by how pervasive this behaviour was across a wide range of service industries,” the researchers say.
“I fully expected to see this behaviour in bars and restaurants, but I was surprised at how prevalent it was in industries like retail, sports, and recreation, and even with insurance claims.”
Preventing sweethearting
The research team suggest that the best means of preventing such employee theft is by employing better screening during recruitment.
“Our results show that by adding a few screening questions that focus on the potential employee’s risk-taking, ethics, and need for social acceptance, employers could identify ‘bad apples’ up front and simply avoid hiring them,” they say. “In the long run, this approach would address the issue.”
In the short-term education is the key tactic. Employers need to educate staff on the ramifications of sweethearting, both for the employee and the employer. In many cases, something as simple as reminding employees that such behaviour is un-ethical can often go a long way towards curbing sweethearting.
With the issue costing organizations hundreds of billions each year, sweethearting is something that can no longer be brushed under the carpet. Hopefully this research will make employers more aware of the size of the problem, and provide some help in tackling it.
Adi Gaskell is head of online at the Process Excellence Network and is a writer on management issues for Professional Manager magazine.
12 Comments on “ How can you reduce employee theft? ”
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This is a great blog post! Sweethearting is really prevalent in the retail and restaurants industries, which are our specialty for loss prevention programs. Check out our blog for great mystery shopping and loss prevention tips and stories at http://www.hsbrands.com/blog
Posted on 27. March 2012 at 06:31
Informative points are mentioned above in the post. I love this this post. The one other way we can reduce employment theft, is by conducting background check of the employee. This will prevent you from hiring any criminal background employee.
Posted on 2. April 2012 at 00:44
I feel like this article is geared more towards employers training and hiring employees, but what do you suggest an employee do if the employer is showing signs/prevent sweethearting from occuring?
Posted on 16. April 2012 at 15:58
While employers make necessary efforst to prevent employees from sweethearting at the work place, it is also imperative that employees are given a fare share of walfarist treatment e.g competitive salary for the organization’s sectoral play, good working conditions etc because if for instance a worker’s take-home pay could not eventually take him ”home”, that in itself may create room for misdemeanor like sweethearting amongst other factors that time may not permit me to enumerate.
Posted on 21. May 2012 at 05:18
There was an IT guy where I worked who was stealing computers and selling them on Craigslist to pay for his addiction to drugs and sex. He was busted and everyone found out the truth about this guy (they all were shocked, they thought he was a really nice guy). And this employee was so proud of his job, he would bring people by his office to impress them and wow when that guy lost his job he really looked like an ass.
Andrei Hershel
Posted on 23. July 2012 at 14:30
Like Andrei said, when HE was stealing computers, he got made an ass of and they fired him.
Posted on 20. August 2012 at 16:59
This rings a bell… funny how thieves and liars can’t help telling about their bad deeds… Yes sir, Andrei Hershel worked at Oracle (the same time that I was there) around 2006, and he was FIRED for steeling! This is too funny:-)
Posted on 4. January 2013 at 21:58
Wow, Andrei was fired from Oracle for stealing computers too?! Yea, I see on the Andrei Hershel resume on Google’s LinkedIn cache that he worked there, must be the same Andrei Hershel. It’s amazing employers don’t do much of a background check, they’d find out with just a Google search that he’s an IT guy with a legacy for stealing computers and selling them. He must cut a deal with HR so they can’t reveal why he was fired. What kind of constraints are there for the HR departments of the companies he stole from? I hear Andrei is telling people he was set up and the Craigslist postings weren’t his! Right, and I guess someone hacked into his Facebook account to post the classified ads for new Macbooks? What kind of an IT guy would have his Facebook hacked into anyway? Did Andrei have a problem with drugs and call girls back then too? That’s where all his money goes I hear.
Posted on 13. January 2013 at 00:35
Actually in the case of Andrei Hershel being fire for stealing computers, his first employer that fired him for stealing probably did not disclose to anyone checking references why he was fired. HR departments consider this a legal liability, so Andrei was able to get a job at the second employer that he stole computers from because the HR department couldn’t find any information about Andrei’s case of employee theft. Andrei Hershel therefore was able to continue stealing computers from his employers. I would guess that now there is some information on forums like this one so that if an HR department were to Google his name as a cursory background check, they’d find out about his history of stealing computers.
Employee theft is a serious problem and its very sad that companies get victimized by this selfish, arrogant behavior. I pray that Andrei Hershel has been punished for stealing computers at work and hopefully this experience will help him grow his character in a more positive direction.
Posted on 14. January 2013 at 22:31
The previous references to Andrei Hershel are false and a lawsuit against Craig Hordlow for fraud and slander is on its way. PLEASE NOTE THAT ANDREI HERSHEL WAS NOT FIRED FROM ORACLE FOR THEFT AND WAS NOT STEALING COMPUTERS FROM PUBLICIS. THESE STATEMENTS ARE FALSE.
I am writing these statements because this site has not responded to my pleas to remove this.
Thank you,
Andrei Hershel
Posted on 31. January 2013 at 06:31
Craig Hordlow has writen these statements because of his inability to cope with the fact that his girlfriend and I were romantic.
Posted on 31. January 2013 at 06:34
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