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Audits, Pay Attention to Change, Investigate ALL Tips


Audits, Pay Attention to Change, Investigate ALL Tips

Chapter 3: Detecting and Preventing Employee Theft

Posted by Dawn Lomer on July 25th, 2011

Chapter 1: Smart Hiring, Training and Education, Establish a Reporting System

Chapter 2: Positive Work Environment and Internal Security Policies

Chapter 3: Audits, Pay Attention to Change, Investigate ALL Tips

6. Audits

Conduct scheduled and random financial and accounting audits. When employees are aware that there will be random checks of their areas, they’re more likely to be honest. It reinforces the culture of accountability in the company. Also, they will not feel singled out when it’s their turn for an audit.

7. Pay Attention to Change

A key investigation technique is to be aware of changes in employee actions. There could be multiple reasons behind an employee’s changing behaviour, but you may want to monitor these changes in case something happens down the road.

Foster an atmosphere of understanding and openness with employees so that they feel comfortable enough with management that they can talk to you if they’re having financial difficulties that might tempt them to steal from the company.

8. Consistent Investigation of ALL Tips

It’s best to investigate, or at least make an inquiry into, every incident reported regarding theft or fraud. In order to address issues quickly and show your commitment to preventing theft and fraud, action must be taken immediately. The faster you look into the incident and can resolve it, the better your chances for avoiding repeat problems or snowballing into a BIG problem that could tarnish the reputation of your company.

Chapter 4: Lead by Example and Continuous Improvement


Dawn Lomer
Dawn Lomer

Manager of Communications

Dawn Lomer is the Manager of Communications at i-Sight (now Case IQ) Software and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). She writes about topics related to workplace investigations, ethics and compliance, data security and e-discovery, and hosts i-Sight (now Case IQ) webinars.