I recently read an interesting article about employee theft. More like an unfortunate partial uniformed slanted article.
The article was written by an electronic integrator who did have the basic information about employee theft correct but his angle to defend or mitigate your losses was obviously slanted and influenced by hopes of increasing sales.
Some or most of you have probably heard of the 10-10-80 rule of thumb when it comes to your employees. The rule states that 10% of your employees are completely honest, 10% are completely dishonest and will rob you blind without a second thought and 80% are as honest as the systems and controls allows them to be. Now my colleague’s advise is to install cameras everywhere, sit back and wait to capture all of the activity. The problem is that sometimes people are keen to the idea that you might be watching so they become even more creative in their activities as to not be seen.
I agree that to a certain degree video surveillance can help you seal the deal, or be that final piece of evidence. But let’s face it. If you don’t have the right systems, controls, procedures, policies and most equally important the training to go along with it and the constant reminder of all of these tools for everyone’s benefit. All the cameras in the world are not going to protect the business from the 10% dishonest and most certainly will get the other 80% thinking about circumventing the systems that are in place.
Electronics won’t always be your answer. They can be a great tool and as technology evolves they become easier to use and cheaper to purchase.
Your best tool will be the time spent in preparing proper systems, controls, procedures, policies and training, communicating and maintaining those efforts.