A few weeks ago, one of our clients uncovered a theft from their business. While their business was not broken into and it was not cyber hacked, it was discovered that a ten-year employee had been stealing funds from them for several years!

Unfortunately, we have seen these claims before. Our clients are always astounded that this could happen to their business, and are very upset that an employee they trusted stole from them.

 

Here are a few recent statistics about employee theft:

• 75% of employees admit to stealing at least once from their employer.
• Employees cause 90% of all significant theft-related losses.
• Workplace crime costs businesses in the US an estimated 50 billion per year.
• A typical fraud case lasts 14 months before detection and causes an average loss of $8,300 per month.
• Nearly 5% of global revenue is lost to fraud, with operations, accounting, upper management, and sales departments responsible for almost half of the cases.
• One-third of all business bankruptcies were caused by employee theft.

 

Many years ago our own agency was the victim of employee theft. What is a business to do?

Develop a system of checks and balances within your business and review your insurance options.

Review
Know how your sales, expenses, payroll, retirement accounts, bank accounts, accounts receivable and accounts payable work, and have a review plan for them. Check your numbers! Even with all that, it can still happen. Employee thefts come from those that may know your systems better than you do!

Insurance
We also suggest that all businesses review their Employee Dishonesty, Crime Insurance, and Cyber Insurance options. Do not assume that you included these in your insurance program.

You may decide your business needs this insurance protection or you may decide you do not. We know you have worked diligently to build your successful business.

Keep it safe from thieves!