How to React if Someone is Stealing from Your Business

It’s a situation that every business owner dreads. When money starts to go missing, you have to move quickly to find out who is taking it.

Launch an Investigation

What you don’t want to do when you suspect someone in your business of stealing is jump to conclusions. If you accuse an innocent person of stealing without solid evidence to back up your claim, you could destroy that relationship. Then, divisions and rifts within the office environment will appear.

So, you first need to launch an investigation into what is happening. This should be a fair and accountable process that’s based on facts and evidence rather than guesswork and conjecture. You could even hire a private detective to look into things in more detail, click here to find out more about this possibility.

Talk to Everyone Individually

As part of your investigation, you’ll have to give everyone in the office the chance to give their version of events to you. This is a great way of letting everyone have their say and picking up on potential leads and clues. Don’t talk to people as a group though; people will be less willing to talk if they have to speak in front of everyone.

When you’re talking to them, don’t be aggressive or abrasive with people. This is simply a chance to get people’s side of the story and to see if they know anything about the theft. You can’t go into the process with preconceived ideas about specific people’s guilt or innocence.

Take Appropriate Action

Once you’ve concluded your investigation, and you know who stole from your business (if anyone did), it’ll be up to you to take action. The appropriate action will probably depend on the severity of the crime and what was stolen. If someone was stealing stationary, it might be enough to give them a formal warning, but you wouldn’t get the police involved.

But if they stole a large sum of money, it’s only right that you let the police know what has happened. You’ll then have to cooperate with them and hand over the evidence you found. But you might already have done this if the amount of money stolen was large enough.

Make Sure it Can’t Happen Again

Now you’ve been through this stressful ordeal, you will want to make sure that you never have to go through it again. This means making big changes to the way your company is run and installing new security systems. Don’t go over the top with surveillance techniques though, this will just make people feel like they’re not trusted.

If your employees have to work with money, you could rotate their roles regularly. Theft tends to happen when an employee is very comfortable and trusted in their role, and they feel like they can get away with stealing. Putting extra measures in place like having two people count the money can also help prevent theft.

Image Source

Suffering theft is never easy, and this is even truer when it’s happening within your office. So, follow this process if it happens to you.