As a business owner, you need to keep your company safe from various kinds of criminal activity, such as cyber attacks which might result in important data being compromised, and onsite break-ins that could lead to property damage or theft. But it’s not only outsiders who present a threat to your company. Employee theft is an unfortunate reality, and comes in various forms, such as the following:

• Petty theft
• Data theft
• Cash larceny
• Skimming

However, there are ways to prevent these crimes, and in this article we’ll be taking you through each one of them.

Petty theft

Office supplies are important for maintaining productivity and ensuring no task gets interrupted thanks to a shortage of necessary equipment. However, a few of your employees might feel comfortable with sneaking a few items of stationery into their handbags and satchels. This can be costly in the long run, especially if you’re a small business. A quick decrease in your inventory and the constant need to restock it can cost your company more money than it needs to spend.

This is why you should knuckle down on monitoring your office supplies. Create a log of the equipment you have so that you know which items are disappearing at a quicker rate than others. It will also help if you installed security cameras near your storage area in order to keep an eye on who might be taking supplies from it regularly. If you have a separate storeroom where inventory is kept, then install cameras both inside and outside this room.

READ MORE: The best places to install security cameras at your office

Data theft

Cyber attacks have become particularly prevalent in today’s age, and while they might usually be perpetrated by outside parties, it’s not uncommon for data theft to be committed by your own employees. Someone in your company might sell trade secrets, credit card information or contact lists to a third party, the result of which can be detrimental to your business. Insider data theft can tarnish your company’s image, impede marketing efforts, and maybe even result in fines or lawsuits.

In order to minimise the risk of data theft by your employees, you should lessen the amount of people to whom you allow access to important data. Only permit access to those people who actually need it. On top of that, it’s necessary to keep valuable information stored in whatever cloud application your company uses and keep it secure with a strong password.

Cash larceny

Cash larceny involves the theft of money that has already been recorded by your company. It takes various forms, such as stealing cash from the register (if your company has one), reversing cash transactions, altering cash counts, writing personal cheques to cover theft or destroying cash register logs. Cash larceny is a fairly easy crime to detect. What business owners should watch out for is constant shortages in cash at hand or fluctuations in their company’s bank account balances.

If your business operates with a cash register then a worthwhile solution to prevent cash larceny, as with petty theft, is the installation of a surveillance camera solution. This will help you monitor who is accessing the register and handling money. Other means to prevent this crime is separating cash-related duties, as giving one employee control over an entire accounting transaction can increase the risk of fraud; rotating cash-related tasks; and conducting surprise cash counts in order to pick up on any possible instances of theft.

Skimming

Unlike cash larceny, skimming involves the theft of money has not yet been recorded in a company’s books. A simplified example of this would be a cashier at a take out not giving receipts to customers who pay in cash and putting that money in his pocket. Since there is no record of that transaction, the money can’t be traced.

Skimming frauds are more difficult to detect than instances of cash larceny. To be safe, look out for irregular entries to your company’s cash accounts and, once again, fluctuations in bank account balances.

Employee theft can happen, so be extra vigilant when it comes to your company’s property, money and data. Always be on the lookout for financial irregularities, restrict access to important information, and create a log of all your office supplies. Also be sure to invest in an effective security camera system in order to monitor what goes on in your office.