EMPLOYEE THEFT IS A GROWING PROBLEM.
... Fred
by Alan J. Zell, Ambassador of Selling

Q. Employee theft is a growing problem. I sell musical instruments. A common expression in our industry is that "our guitars and banjos had strings attached." Now, I find they have legs and they are walking out the back door. I'm at a loss of what to do.

Fred

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A. Fred: Have you set up video cameras by both your front and back doors? I would suggest it. They may not catch someone in the act, but the fact that they are there may be a deterrent. BTW, do not think that a dummy unit will work. Employees have to know and see that both doors are being taped with time and date.

However, the other question I might ask is, "Why are your employees stealing from you?" From my experience and reading, there are 3 factors that cause people to want to steal from their employer -- they believe: * they are not getting paid enough, * they are not treated right -- respected for their skills and ideas, * you're making so much money on the sweat off their backs. Stealing is their way of getting their share of the pie they believe they should be getting.

Most likely you do not see these attitudes as true for your firm but your employees may see things differently.

One of the problems many businesses face today is that very few people come to the business world with any idea of how business works and what it costs to run a business. Very few people realize that salaryies are a percentage of profits (no profit, no salaries) and not a percentage of sales. If they little realize that every theft is taking money out of each employee's pockets do others realize that theft of inventory reduces their earnings?

I'm not familiar with the markup on musical instruments. If it is like many other retail businesses, it's double cost or "keystone." That's 100% profit in employees' minds. So, when they hear that you make whatever your markup is, even if it is lower that keystone, they think this is all profit and you should be paying them more. They have no idea of what it costs to run a business.

So, Fred, I may not have answered your question. I hope, however, I have given some insights into why employee theft may be happening.

This article was written to help you and your business. If you believe some of these articles will be helpful to your business, please e-mail me your comments on how you will apply them. ajz

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