How to Deal with Employee Theft

Employee theft in manufacturing companies happens more often than you think. Whether your workers take a small part or an expensive piece of machinery, these instances of theft will ultimately hurt your business. Fortunately, there are easy ways to help prevent it.

Read on to learn more about how to deal with and prevent employee theft in your company.

Dealing with Employee Theft

Dealing with employee theft is never easy. Depending on your company’s policies, you’ll need to go through several steps to effectively handle an employee theft situation.

When an employee steals, you first need to create an incident report that includes the date and time of when the theft occurred as well as what was stolen and who took it.

From there, you’ll want to discuss disciplinary actions with the employee. Based on your company policies, you can put them on a probationary period or have them pay for the stolen item. However, if you want to ensure that the employee doesn’t steal again, the best option would be termination.

How to Prevent Employee Theft

Once a worker steals from your company, you need to take the necessary precautions to ensure that it never happens again. Terminating an employee who has stolen from the company eliminates the chances of him or her doing so again.

To help minimize employee theft for your entire company, consider the tips below:

• Perform Background and Reference Checks on Potential Employees

Reducing employee theft for your manufacturing company starts with making sure that you hire the right people. When hiring potential workers, performance background and reference checks help to eliminate those with records of workplace theft.

•  Implement Inventory Monitoring and Tracking Systems

Logistic solutions like tracking systems and inventory monitoring will help to reduce the risk of employee theft. These technologies can provide real-time information on your business’ inventory levels. They can alert you when there’s an item missing and even help you track its location.

• Ensure Security and Surveillance in High-Risk Areas

Security cameras and other surveillance systems in high-risk areas like the supply room and loading docks are a great way to spot and prevent instances of employment theft. You can also perform unanticipated walkthroughs and inspections of areas around your warehouse as well to look for any signs of missing equipment.

• Trust the Right People

Finally, make sure that you trust the right people with keys, passcodes, money, and other items that could lead to employee theft. Only trust workers who are dependable and have an honest record with the company. These employees will ensure that your company is protected and secure.

Every manufacturing company is susceptible to employee theft, but the guide above can help you deal with it and prevent such incidents in the future.

Read CPV Manufacturing’s blog to more workplace tips.