Inside Job -- Employee theft problems and how to overcome it
Internal employee theft is a massive problem for restaurateurs. The National Restaurant Association has estimate that internal theft accounts for, an average, about 75% of inventory shortage in restaurants and bars. Moreover, the problem is not limited to restaurateurs; a 2005 survey by the University of Florida says that employee theft amounts to 47% of all inventory shrinkage in the retail industry.
Perhaps the most shockingly, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that roughly 75% of ALL employees have stolen something at least ONCE, and that many workers steal repeatedly.
Recognizing Employee Theft
Employment theft takes many different forms. In the restaurant and food industry, owners and managers often think of theft in the form of cash shortage and loss of inventory. Other forms of theft, however, are less recognizable and may be accomplished in a discrete manner. An example of a particularly discrete form of employment theft is the practice of overcharging customers for a product, and pocketing the additional dollars charged, particularly if paid in cash. Other common examples include undercharging friends and family (for example, by giving away free drinks in exchange for large tips), falsifying company documents, or stealing office supplies, customer lists, trade secrets and other confidential proprietary information.
While many of these examples may seem obvious, what is equally as obvious is the fact that – as demonstrated by the statics mentioned earlier – employers are missing the signs of employment theft on a daily basis.
Therefore, business owners and managers should be on the lookout for the following signs of employee theft:
At Improving Restaurants, we give you all the tools you need to succeed. We have done ALL the hard work for you. With our AlertService system, we ACTIVELY monitor ALL of the POS transactions, once we detect a suspicious transaction, such as charging kids meals for friends and family, over charging, refunding/voiding transactions, short tables, long tables and many more. Once we suspect a transaction as scam/fraud, we email the manager or the designated person with the ticket detail, server information and why the transaction was flagged. At this point, your managers can review the transaction and take further action.
Genghis Grill has successfully implemented AlertService throughout their locations and successfully terminated servers and even managers who were scamming them of their bottom line profits. For referral and references, please call us at 214-272-2277 today.
Tags: