Employee theft accounts approximately 1/3rd of all loss in a typical retail store according to the NRTA and other sources. While employers like to believe that their employees are honest, employee theft is a huge problem. There is no logical reason to conclude that employee theft is not a problem at your store.
In the master’s thesis “Dishonest Associates in the Workplace: The Correlation between Motivation and Opportunity in Retail among Employee Theft” written in May 2009 by Edith M. Fikes some interesting factors were uncovered about internal theft from a retail store.
Kessler International, a forensic accounting firm, released results from a survey of 500 employees. It is shocking that 95 percent, yes 95 percent of employees stole from their employers. My guess, maybe it is cynical, that the other five percent were not being 100% honest. Included in "theft" was theft of time and supplies. There are many ways employees will steal from their employer beyond outright theft, but the results can affect profit. If it be minutes here and there texting, printing out the party invitations, using the computer for personal use, taking toilet paper home, grabbing a handful of pens, using store bags for cat litter (I was chatting with someone who told me they do that!), using any in-store discount for "gifts" to friends and much more. The employee will justify themselves and one could argue that these forms of theft are not severe, but there is no doubt that they do add up to significant losses in the workplace.
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