Employees and business owners are always working towards ensuring their office or facility are not broken into, but employees are actually 5.5 times more likely to steal from their workplace than an outsider or customer. This could be anything from supplies to time or even money and products. It is important to promote a workplace where employees are encouraged to be honest. Here are 15 employee theft statistics and how to create more workplace honesty

Workplace Theft Statistics:

1. More than 30 percent of business bankruptcies are due to employee theft. (smg.com)
2. Employees steal more than $50 billion from U.S. businesses annually. (Statistic Brain)
3. Employee theft cost US businesses an average of $1.13 million in losses. (Hiscox)
4. 70% of check fraud cases occurred at companies with fewer than 100 employees. (Hiscox)
5. 28% of retail inventory losses are due to employee theft. (Fortune)
6. 90% of all significant theft losses come from employees. (Willis North America)
7. internal theft of money or goods from employees is a primary cause of a significant percentage of small business failures (Reference for Business)
8. Fraud cases will last 14 months on average before detection. (ACFE)
9. One-third of employee theft comes from employees within the accounting or finance department . (Hiscox)
10. Over 20% of business theft is cash. (Balance Innovations)
11. 60% of employees would steal if they knew they wouldn’t get caught or if someone else is doing it. (FBI)
12. 10% of employees say they actively look for ways to steal. (FBI)
13. The main industries that employee theft occurs are finance, insurance, and healthcare. (Carnegie)
14. 27% of employee fraud occurs in government, healthcare, construction and service industries. (Ernst & Young)
15. Employee theft costs are rising at a rate of 15% per year. (U.S. Department of Commerce)

How to Promote an Honest Workplace

Knowing these statistics can be concerning for business owners, but it is important for companies to know what their options are to prevent future theft to happen to either the company or other employees. A simple access control or video surveillance system can help cut employee and outside theft.

Access Control: Control Where Your Employees Can Go

With Access Control, you can easily control which employees have access to which spaces. With traditional keys, there is the worry of whether keys will be copied and missed or if you will have to change locks when employees leave. With Access control, each employee gets their own unique code that comes with a time stamp. When an employee leaves, all you have to do is disable the code. If you notice a suspicious code entry, you can check your surveillance footage to be sure the code matches the users. This timestamp comes in great when you want to be sure employees are clocking in on time and no employee is clocking in too late. If you are worried about whether codes are being misused, pair your access control system with video surveillance for maximum security.

Video Surveillance: Keep Employees Accountable

Let’s say someone’s valuables went missing. You know the last time it was seen and when it was reported missing. This is where you surveillance cameras come in. What if it was a span of 6 hours though? That is a long time for someone to sit and wait to see when the item was stolen. Now there is a rule set in place that allows you to put a motion detection on the spot of the feed you want monitored, and the system will stop to when the item was moved. This ensures workplace honesty as well as saves time when there is a mishap.

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If you are ready to upgrade your office, now is the time to act. Contact our office today to get set up with new, innovative technology that ensures employee safety and the well-being of your office.