Auditel Consultant:
Simon Beechinor

Do you trust your staff…?

11 Mar 2010 | Filed under: Cost management, General business

It is obvious that staff are a business cost and like any other cost area, staff, perhaps more than any other, need careful management. I spoke to a client recently who said that when he was a small business his staff would come to him and ask him if it was ok to take a box of this item, or that, from the stores to take home for personal use… and he always obliged them.

But now his is a larger business, he observed that noone asks him for anything anymore and has concluded that … they’re just taking it. He blames himself as he says he probably developed a reputation for being soft and admits he could do more to beef up security and control – but the bottom line is, his staff are taking him for a ride and his business consumables and stationery items are just walking out of the door.

Staff, rightly, can expect to be treated with respect and courtesy and screeds of legislation enshrine laws to protect staff from mismanagement and abuse. But it is only fair to say that with that comes a responsibility for staff to behave decently in return. If a staff member takes a pack of batteries home for their child’s electric toy, it is theft as much as if they had taken it from the high street.