6 Sure-fire Security Practices to Avoid Theft and Minimize Employee Fraud

Imagine an intruder or a fraudulent employee walks through an open door and steals valuable properties such as fixtures, cash, and intellectual property of the business. Or vandalism on off-shift that shuts down the production line for days, costing a significant budget for the company.

These are some examples of weak security systems and procedures that should never happen to your business. In fact, a study shows that 33% of business bankruptcies are because of employee theft. When the businesses protocols are under control, the operation of the company will run smoothly, as well as keeping its people safe and comfortable.

But when the security system fails, it can leave the company a disastrous effect. To avoid this and other unfortunate events, consider the following steps to safeguard your business better.

Perform a Risk Assessment

Start by determining on what your company does and the things involved including your premises, employees, equipment, and many more. Then distinguish the key risks which can include both external dangers, and internal threats such as employee fraud or accidents caused by improper safety equipment and procedures.

Assess the possibility of each risk, and determine how severe the result would be. Further, prioritize to manage business risks that will be most likely to have a significant impact.

Set a Code of Conduct

A business owner should create a code of proper conduct. This document should define what acceptable or appropriate behavior within business premises is, and what consequences there will be if a staff violates the terms.

Though this text doesn’t need to describe all necessary actions, it’s best to plan for critical areas such as keeping sensitive information safe, protecting the property of the company. More so, you should communicate the code of conduct to your staff upon hiring, and they should sign that they will follow it.

Secure Your Business Premises

It seems like an obvious idea, but some business owners tend to forget about the importance of adequate physical security.

Thus, if need, strengthen or upgrade doors, install security lighting, and fit window locks. Each can prevent burglars since some robberies are unplanned. If the access points are exposed, consider installing a CCTV, but take note that data protection rules may apply.

Also, if you don’t have an alarm system installed, make sure you get a fitted one and hang some signs as a warning of its presence. In addition to that, consider installing either shutters or grilles, but you may need planning approval from your local committee.

Separate and Monitor Employee Duties

The tasks you should be concerned about the most are those of the employees who handle merchandise and do your bookkeeping. Hence, consider distributing the duties to your employees.

For instance, the staff who works on your bank reconciliation should not be the one who is going to pay the bills. Or, the employee who takes in stock for sale shouldn’t be the person who decides if a product should be scrapped or the one who inputs the purchase of a product.

Assign a Floor Marshall

In some cases, it’s almost impossible to recognize every new employee, vendor, or contractor, especially on large companies. Indeed, intruders may take this opportunity to attack.

With regards to that, if the visitor management policy is not existing within the business, it can be a way for them to gain access to an office, steal property or information, or may harm physically. To prevent that from happening, assigning a floor marshall is a straight and efficient way to help protect your premises against such intruders.

Regular Review and Revise

The truth is, it’s not enough to only put these procedures in place. You and your top officials must also take time to review and revise your security measures. Evaluate and make sure you address all the items on your checklist. Then, set some key steps to make sure that slippages are within a right range.

An example, study your rate of inventory turnover this year and compare it with the last few years of operation to whether fraud is involved.

Takeaway

It’s apparent that these security measures may be costly and time-consuming. But they consume far less expense and time than losing company assets caused by intruders, or employee theft.

Securing your business premises can probably the most effective way to protect your business’ property, and locksmithman.ca and other security services can help you with this process.