Whether as an aspiring entrepreneur or a long time small business owner, there are always going to be worries on your mind about how your company is performing, and of course, there are always going to be risks of building up your own successful business venture. One thing that is often overlooked, but can be a threat to your business is theft from within. Commonly known as shrinkage in the retail business employee theft and shoplifting is a big problem for small business owners.
In order to find out what the levels of theft are like within work places, Data-Label has carried out a survey of adults aged over 18 asking: “Have you ever stolen something from your place of work?” and a surprising 20% of respondents, nearly 400 out of the 1,986 questioned, admitted that they had done.
Delving further to find out what sort of threats a small business could be facing if they find that their employees are stealing from work, they asked: “What did you steal?” The most common response was stationary, followed by food from both the company and their fellow staff members, and finally toilet roll. The most common reason, cited by the vast majority of respondents (85%), given for why they had stolen from work was that they didn’t think anyone would notice, although 8% stated it was because they believed they deserved more from the company that they received.
