How to deal with dishonest staff
1. Viewpoint
"Who is the biggest thief of all in the corporate world? Take a look in the mirror. He or she may be staring back at you.
Current studies show that the United States is losing $98 billion a year through employee laziness and dubious illnesses. Each employee steals an average of 4 hours and 5 minutes a week. Workers:
- go slow to make jobs last
- moonlight
- come in late, leave early, and take long lunches
- make personal phone calls at work
- say the boss does it, so why shouldn’t we
- are just bone idle.
So how do we fight it? Hire employees only when you need them, make work rules at the start and stick to them, and find the worst offenders - and get rid of them first."
2. Quotable quote
"Employee pilferage causes more businesses to close or go into bankruptcy than any other crime. Studies by the US government and by a variety of business organisations indicate that employee pilferage accounts for 38-75 per cent of business losses. I need to add that business owners and management often resist the idea that employees steal from them. Others know or suspect it but ignore the problem, believing it’s only a temporary situation."
3. Ask yourself
- Do you have provable evidence, or mere suspicion?
- Have you meticulously recorded your evidence?
- Will you deal with the dishonesty in-house, or will you involve police?
- In an in-house inquiry, did you scrupulously apply the principles of natural justice?
- Will you require restitution or compens-ation? Will you need to instigate court action? …
