Business Employee Theft – Statistics and Concerns

By Jeff Pizzino, APR, Corporate Communications –

Employees who commit acts of theft cost businesses $50 billion annually.

Concerning business fraud and corruption, much of it results from employee theft — whether it’s petty theft by a bottom-level employee or millions stolen by an executive, it’s the same. All forms of corruption damages the company by injuring its integrity and tarnishing its reputation.

The statistics are worrisome: employees steal $50 billion annually from businesses. (Source: Association of Certified Fraud Examiners or ACFE 2012.)

Quarter of Thefts are $1 Million or More

Here are some of those statistics broken down.

Of this $50 billion stolen by employees, a quarter of these thefts are $1 million or more, and a 45 percent are between $10,000-500,000, with a median of $175,000 stolen.

Nine percent of employees steal less than $10,000, with employees seeming to think that such a small amount will go unnoticed. The same report shows that 60 percent of inventory shrinkage is caused by corruption or neglect and error in business management.

One-third of Bankruptcies Due to Employee Theft

The most frightening statistic for businesses is that one-third of all business bankruptcies are caused by employee theft. This suggests that if those businesses had been vigilant to corrupt or fraudulent practices, they could have potentially avoided bankruptcy and remained financially sound.

Financially speaking, business fraud and theft are a huge strain, but when the cost is the loss of the business, it becomes much more significant an issue.

Deception Detection

Some 75 percent of employees have reportedly stolen at least once from their employer. That statistic alone is disconcerting, but it’s hard to predict when a person might steal one time. However, considering 38 percent of employees steal at least twice from their employer, ongoing screening might be a good way to stop it from being a regular problem.

EyeDetect™ helps identify employees who have stolen or who are prone to deception, which makes it an ideal tool for pre-screening employees and conducting periodic screening (particularly those in positions of trust). Field trials show EyeDetect can identify deception with 85% accuracy.

It doesn’t matter what degree the person stealing has. Here’s a breakdown:

Rather than wait two years to detect office fraud, which is the average time it takes (Source: ACFE 2012), find out now with EyeDetect — a simple, nonintrusive and cost effective lie detector test. Technology now exists to prevent further loss of your organization’s assets — and further damage to your reputation.

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