Employee Theft – does your insurance policy protect you from this?

NATIONAL

Craig Love | Senior Risk Adviser, Adroit Insurance & Risk

Employee theft is an unfortunate reality facing many supermarket businesses. Lack of job satisfaction and/or career progression, financial insecurity, external lifestyle factors such as alcohol and gambling addictions are just a few of the more common motives for employee theft.

We have seen a recent example where the cost to a supermarket due to employee theft was more than $100,000 over several years, where a number of employees were colluding in regularly taking stock home, not ringing up goods for friends and family members (“sweethearting”) and regularly taking a few dollars from the cash register (skimming).

Prevention is an important component of avoiding employee theft. As the old saying goes, ‘Prevention is far better than the cure.’ It is far better to avoid the theft happening in the first instance so as not to have to claim on your insurance policy. Below are some tips for supermarket employers to prevent employee theft: • Compulsory criminal history checks for all staff • Workplace training to caution against employee theft • Anonymous staff hotline/email address to report employee theft • Regular Internal and external audits of financial records • Install security cameras over areas where inventory is held and cash transactions are made

Even with the tightest measures in place to protect your supermarket, how can you be truly certain that your business’s interests are protected?

If you would like to discuss any aspect of your supermarket insurance program, please contact our specialist supermarket Risk Advisers at Adroit Insurance & Risk on 1300 My Adroit for a free health check on your supermarket insurance program.