Taking money from Till

[newbie99]

Hi Posters;

I am wondering what is the best way to prevent / stop money being taken by the staff in a shop.

I know which staff is taking the money but I don't want to confront this culprit. If I do, I will fire this individual, which I don;t want to do.

I am planning of fitting a CCTV, but don;t want to alarm all the staffs. What do you guys think? Is there a better way to handle this type of situation.

This culprit also has the key to the premises and I suspected some stocks have been taken.

Any suggestions are welcome...

[Whoever]

I find it difficult to believe you couldn't replace this person with the current high unemployment level. It does rather sound as if you have a private agenda here which you are not, for some reason able to share with us for not getting rid of the individual concerned. How far are you going to let this run before getting the police involved? When you family business in bankrupted and all the other innocent employees have lost their jobs? Installing CCTV is not enough. Get some legal advice about installing a CCTV and your employment procedures for dismissing staff before you take the next step but I think you need to report these thefts to the police. Also. change the locks to your premises and don't give a new key to the suspect and if appropriate consider getting a Smartwater kit and security mark your stock so that it can be traced back to your store. Call your staff in one by one, with the suspect first, tell them about the thefts, watch for their reaction, and ask them if they know anything about them. Tell them that the police have already been notified. This may possibly force the thief to make a confession if they think is law is likely to close in on them. Do you know if any of your staff are facing financial difficulties at home with a partner being made redundant, debts building up, etc? This could possibly give you a clue as to who might be taking the money.

[lizzydrippin]

He knows who's taking the money Whoever, but doesn't want to lose such a valued member of his staff, (so heaven only knows what the not so valued members are like!)

[newbie99]

Just to follow up...

I have put out a notice to all staff stating that stocks and money has been theft over a long period of time.

The notice did not name the culprit, but to let the culprit knows that I know what is going on...

When this notice went up the culprit has the biggest reaction. I will see what happens from now on...Will report back again on Wednesday that's when she get into work again. The main concern I have now is she will stir things up in the shop causing a distruption to the business or affecting other staff to work.

[Whoever]

Newbie99 - I'm glad you've at last taken some action, but just putting up a notice is a rather passive way of the Head of your business taking control. I suggest you now take some more directaction. Now the notice has gone up, everybody is aware of the problem. Follow up by having a personal interview with every member of your staff, (you infer there are not a huge number so this shouldn't be a time problem). Explain in person why you have taken this action and ask each person if they have any idea who might be responsible because it is putting everybody's livelihood at risk. And finish your interview by asking each employee if they will give their personal cooperation in helping you to track down the individual concerned so that everybody else can be cleared from the unpleasant situation of being wrongly suspected as being a thief. By talking to everybody individually you eliminate the risk of anybody feeling they are being targetted, but the thief (who you already suspect) will now know that she could be under the watchful eye of everybody else. If that doesn't put the pressure to cease the practice immediately, or hand in her resignation you have a tougher opponent than you thought and would be wise to take prevative action yourself.

[newbie99]

More to follow up....

The culprit had teamed up another member of staff by asking her not to go into work last week and causes me headache due to shortage of staff. The culprit also has dragged her feet when doing her work.

This culprit is an old fox, she spread rumours that one of my sister is taking money fro the till. She is doing this to try to stir the relationship between me and my sister. I know my sister is clear.

I will ask another member of staff to be trained up to replace the culprit in the new year, and I am planning to fire her on Christmas Eve.

I didn't want to fire her on the 24th Dec, but had no choice, because if I do it any earlier she might ganged up another staff and also affects the marale of the team to do a proper work especially when we are busy during Xmas times.

I am also recruiting another extra staff in case her other mate leave with her.

I know I am evil to choose the Xmas Eve to fire such person.

Any other suggestions?

Thank you.

[ummmm]

I think it is more evil to steal from someone.

Isn't there procedures you have to follow though?

[Androcles]

Are you out of your tiny? Companies go bust over things like this and the way you have handled it has obviously made things worse, with her now causing staff trouble.

With staff disciplinaries there is a simple thing to remember - it ain't what you do it's the way that you do it - you must follow a fair procedure. Of course you can dismiss people for thieving, you just need to make sure you have collected all the evidence of it. Then you can tell them they are subject to a disciiplinary action as a result of theft and you can suspend them on pay until the disciplinary hearing. They can have a representative present. You can then tell them the reasons for your action and display the evidence you have collected. You must give them a chance to respond to the charge. You can then make your mind up if it is proved or not. You can call in the police if you wish, but you can still dismiss her if you are satisfied with the evidence and with the witnesses you have collected. The punishment you decide on must be reasonable in relation to the crime and in most cases of theft thatin itself is enough to dismiss.

Don't hang about, get on with it - leave it and the staff member will be fomenting all kinds of trouble and severely damage your business and the livelihoods of all your employees who are not thieving as well as your own wealth. She may take you to a tribunal, but provided you have the evidence and there is nothing you are hiding from us you should be fine.

[newbie99]

I am not firing her under the basis that she is stealing. I am firing her due to poor business and need to reduce the staff head count.

Following the notice when up on the board, she has stopped operating the till. This has caused problem to the business. I expect to have two staff to operate the till each day. If she doesn't operate the till I had to get another staff to come in and is not viable. So I will use this reason as the selection process. All the staff should be flexible with the work duty.

Her act has identified herself being the culprit. Other staff continue to operate the till as nothing had happened.

[Androcles]

Be very careful firing a person for a declared reason , when it is actually another. You started off this thread on the basis you had a staff member thieving from the till. If you now start talking about performance you still have to have all the evidence to prove it. You may end up with everybody knowing you fired her on a trumped up charge, and they might think you will invent one if you want to get rid of them.

It is better to go for the real reason, if real reason it was!

[newbie99]

More updates...........

I have fired the culprit on the 23rd Dec with a formal letter presented to her. She then phoned me today to explain some of her behaviour in an attempt to get her job back. But there is no way I will let her come back into my shop!

She complaint to me that I have ruined her Xmas festive season by firing her on the 23rd, and why not fire her a week earlier she asked.

I think I have done the right thing by firing her and this will serve a good indicator to other staffs that I will not tolerate the actions they do to damage the business.

Many thanks for those put a response to my problem and now have solve my headache.