Employee Theft And Shoplifting – The Facts and Figures 2015

While retail losses
shrunk to 0.96% of total sales in 2014/15 (down from 1/1% the
previous year) the issue still cost Australian retailers somewhere in
the region of $2.7 billion. The main causes of this, according to
the Global Retail Theft Barometer were shoplifting and surprisingly,
employee theft.

Shoplifting

Although shoplifting is
perceived by many as a non-offensive, low risk crime, the fact of the
matter is that it’s seriously damaging to businesses and the people
who work in them. What’s more due to the decreased investments in
basic loss prevention tools such as alarms and CCTV equipment,
organised shoplifting crime is more prevalent. Small and easy to
conceal items were the obvious targets with mobile accessories,
batteries, fashion accessories, and razor blades being among the most
popular. However higher value, attractive items such as jewellery,
smartphones and perfumes, also faired badly.

Employee theft

According to the above
survey, employment theft was also on the rise and was up 0.5% on the
previous year. This is thought to be down to reduced supervision due
to dwindling budgets, an increasing part-time workforce, many of whom
are on zero hours contracts, and weak pre-employment screening
procedures. Aside from stolen goods, other employee theft scams
involved refund fraud, discount fraud, and accounting fraud.

So what can be done
to reduce these figures?

According to a report
on the findings, retailers need to adopt strategies that prevent
losses by tackling the problem from a wider perspective. Investment
in up-to-date loss prevention technologies including better alarm
systems and internal/external CCTV monitoring is key. In addition,
security awareness needs to be widespread and training needs to
filter down to every level. Loss prevention officers or LPO’s can be
drafted in to tackle individual problems directly and regular
security risk analysis is also advised. Greater degrees of screening
and background checks are recommended at the time of employee
interview to make sure that companies are hiring honest, trustworthy
individuals, and companies should also make sure that employees are
valued. Contented employees are less likely to steal from you.