Employee theft: establish it, don’t assume it
Shrinkage creeps. It starts as a discrepancy blamed on a counting error. A few months later the pattern is clear: it happens regularly, it happens deliberately, and it happens where only a few people have access. The financial loss is usually the lesser evil — the heavier cost is that an entire team falls under suspicion.
Where it typically happens
In retail, at the till and at goods-in. In warehousing and logistics, through returns, breakage reports and unrecorded picking. In hospitality, through unrecorded sales. In workshops, through materials and tools. Each area has its own pattern — and its own route to resolution.
Our approach
We start with your own numbers: when discrepancies occur, on which shifts, in which product groups. Very often that alone narrows the field substantially before an investigator has set foot on site.
We then select the right instrument. For till offences the test purchase is the sharpest tool, because it documents the act itself. For warehouse losses we use covert observation. Where collusion with outsiders is suspected, surveillance beyond the premises is added.
The mistake that costs employers most
Premature confrontation. If an employee is approached before the evidence is complete, the same three things happen every time: the behaviour stops instantly, the evidence is gone for good, and any later dismissal becomes almost impossible to defend. Wait for the investigation to close, however hard that is.
What you receive
A report with a complete chronology, photographic material and a calculation of the documented loss. These materials form the basis for employment measures, for a criminal complaint and for recovering damages. Our investigators are available as witnesses if required.
Prevention afterwards
Once resolved, the question becomes how it was possible at all. Usually the answer lies in access rights, absent segregation of duties, or controls that exist on paper and not in practice. We name the gaps we saw with our own eyes.
Why timing decides the outcome
The most expensive mistake with shrinkage is the premature conversation. If an employee is approached before the evidence holds, three things reliably follow: the behaviour stops immediately, any trace disappears, and a later dismissal becomes almost impossible to sustain. The suspicion remains, the evidence is gone.
That is why we never begin with interviews. We begin with numbers: inventory discrepancies across several periods, till transactions at particular hours, void and return rates by shift. Often the pattern is already clear enough here to narrow the group considerably before anyone has set foot on site.
How we proceed
After the data analysis comes establishing the facts during normal operations. Depending on the case we use covert observation, a test purchase, or a combination of both. A test purchase is particularly effective with till offences because it deliberately brings about and documents the event rather than waiting for it to be noticed by chance.
Everything we establish is documented so that it withstands employment-law scrutiny: date, time, transaction, reference to the record. Without that care, even an unambiguous finding carries little weight before a labour court.
What you can decide afterwards
With solid documentation you have a choice: dismissal, criminal complaint, a claim for damages — or a quiet separation that spares the company the disruption. Many clients choose the last option once they know they are negotiating from a strong position.
Where the group is defined and those involved consent, a polygraph examination shortens the process — it takes place on a voluntary basis only. Where the issue is not theft but feigned incapacity or undeclared secondary employment, employee screening is the appropriate procedure.
What usually brings clients to us
The most common picture: stocktakes are consistently out, always in the same direction and by roughly the same amount. Second, conspicuous void and return rates concentrated on particular shifts. Third, stock the system says is there but the shelf says is not.
A category of its own is selling around the company: goods leave with paperwork, the money never arrives. These transactions are almost invisible in the accounts because everything is formally in order.
What determines the scope
The decisive factors are the number of sites, the volume of data to analyse, whether test purchases are used, and across how many shifts findings must be established. A single site with clear data is resolved considerably faster than a retail chain.
We deliberately start with the data analysis because it often sharply reduces the more expensive part — establishing the facts on site. You receive the price before the assignment begins.
Frequently asked questions
May I have an employee covertly observed?
Where a specific, documented suspicion against a named individual exists, yes. Blanket monitoring of the workforce, no.
How long does it take?
With recurring incidents, usually one to three weeks.
Is it worth it for small amounts?
Almost always — because the problem is rarely the single incident but the total over months.