Embezzlement, Theft and Fraud in the Workplace

I am a member of a local networking group for professionals.  At our last meeting, our group leader shared a horror story that one of his client’s had experienced about rampant employee embezzlement and theft.  The vast majority of our members were able to relay a similar horror story.  The consensus was that embezzlement was occurring on a much larger scale than any of us had imagined.  Trusted employees, managers and family members were robbing their company’s blind.  The sheer magnitude of the money being taken was staggering.
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for 2012, three out of four of your employees will steal from you this year.  One of those people will steal repeatedly or has already done.  Companies in the United States will lose between $20 and $40 billion to small-scale pilfering and large-scale embezzlement.  One of the articles I looked at indicated that as much as 75 percent of employee crimes are never caught.
The FBI has listed a number of possible reasons for the theft: financial need, revenge, dissatisfaction with a job or coworkers, allegiance to another company, thrill of potentially being caught, ego, peer pressure, addictions and family problems.  There are things that you and your company can do to deter theft.  Those things include background checks, security protocols, employee handbooks clearly delineating the consequences of theft, employee training, and confidential offense reporting, to name a few.  One suggestion brought up at our meeting was providing all employees with a two-week straight vacation.  It was a prolonged absence from the office that causes a few of the clients to notice that something was wrong with their accounting practices and this ultimately culminated in the discovery of the theft.
No matter how trusted your managers or employees, you do not want to be another statistic.  For issues relating to your business’s legal needs, contact the Marcus Law Firm at 661-257-8877 and visit www.themaarcuslawfirm.com.