Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine January 2019

opportunity for the service provider to rummage through our drawers and find our spare car key. According to the experts, most people that commit fraud see themselves as victims of circumstance. No doubt, the person who stole our car rationalized their decision (the third factor) in order to justify their actions. If an employee thinks they are underpaid, they may consider the theft their “just deserves.” Perhaps, our thief’s rationale was that selling our car would enable him or her to do something worthier, even nobler, with the money, so “the ends justify the means.” How Can Theft be Prevented? My wife and I run a bookkeeping company. Now, many bookkeepers have access to their clients’ bank accounts, and the world is rife with horror stories of fraud and theft in the financial industry – bookkeepers and brokers, and the like, stealing from their companies and from their clients. We’ve heard the stories, too, and the integrity of our company, as well as the safety and trust of our clients, is of paramount importance to us. To eliminate the opportunity for theft, our policy is that we never have access to our clients’ bank accounts. If they want us to pay bills, we use a third-party service that allows us to initiate payment, but requires the client go online to give final approval. We also try to address feelings of financial burden by maintaining

Thoughts About Employee Theft Parish Hurley, Ed’s Supply A few days ago, my car was stolen

– right out of the driveway. My wife and I suspect it was stolen by the employee of one of

our service providers who was working at our home at the time of the theft. This led me to think about our own business, and your business, and how we as business owners can go about managing the risk of employee theft. Why Do Employees Steal? Ultimately, I think this comes down to three key factors. The first is an obvious one: financial pressure , be it due to gambling and other addictions, or something more altruistic such as the need to care for an ill family member. If an employee feels they cannot confide their hardship, or that that confession will fall on deaf ears, they may be driven to theft. If financial pressure is the motivation, then the next factor is the enabler: opportunity . This boils down to trust, and whether someone has unsupervised access to valuable goods or information. For example, when our car was stolen, I was at work and my wife was at home but upstairs. There was ample