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...

[scotgal]

Are you sleeping with this culprit?

[snags]

Of course you don't 'want' to fire them... but basically they're taking the p1ss. Why should your livelihood (if it's your shop) be at risk because of someone elses selfishness?

[Jan1957]

I don't understand why you don't want to fire the thief and why you are bothered about alarming the rest of the staff. If someone is stealing fire them and put up a cctv to stop the other staff. You're in business to make money.

[sara3]

you want to carry on employing a thief? how strange..

have an all-staff meeting and tell them you are looking into thefts within the store.

and you might as well give them all cash, goods and store keys on their way out!

[tinkerbell23]

in my shop we have to count float at evry shift and record it...and the float inthe safe is counted and signed for...mabye a receipt?? and we also have to count stock every shift my boss would know if there was 10p missing or any stock...mabye ur shop is much bigger though this is a wee sunbed shop??x

[newbie99]

I am reluctant to fire this individual because the shop is short of staff and its difficult to replace this individual. I am so angry and dissapointed that this individual is taking money in such away. The shop is only a small business and I run it like a family business, I don;t treat the staff as workers. I treat them as part of my family. I often pay them bonus on the day if its busy.

At present there is not much staff wants to take the responsibility of operating the till in case money goes missing. So, if I install the CCTV this will trigger some other staffs not to serve the customer.

But I am going ahead with the CCTV anyway, as I am P**** off with money being lost.

[snags]

''I don;t treat the staff as workers. I treat them as part of my family.''

Are you a Charity? ffs you're running a business 'ultimately' for you and yours... no one else.

[tinkerbell23]

mabye say u know money is missing and its being investigated and possible police involvement....scare em...you seem like a lovely person it awful someone would take advantage like that....xx

[tamborine]

Tell them "no bonuses as business is losing money" warn them if it continues you will be forced to make staff redundant and close down. Might shake 'em up but I doubt it, as they've got greedy now they have the upper hand.

If you can't do it yourself, employ a supervisor to sort it for you; give them authority to sack miscreants.

[sumo19]

If you treat them as part of your family (which is fine) then it seems that you are being taken advantage of, with which you should take offence, or I certainly would.

It is a breach of trust and he is also creating unwanted 'outflows' of cash and stock affecting your business too. The best way without a doubt is to place cameras that cover the tills, but as you say you do not wish to worry your other staff. This dishonest person seems to be causing distress to you and to the business and I would imagine confronting hi would be the best option, but it does not necessarily have to lead to the person getting fired. An informal 'just stop what you are doing' will probably scare the hell out of him.

[sumo19]

him/her ***

[NiceCupOfTea]

It sounds to me like you want to prevent the perfect heist by planning one. Good luck.

[mikey0118]

I am not convinced that you would have any problems hiring somebody else should you decide to relieve the thief of his/her duties (sack them). In our current economic climate, so many people are looking for work.

[bathtub]

A friend of mine took a similar view when someone was raiding his till. He sprang a trap to 'catch' the culprit (he already knew who she was), then backed off from sacking her or taking any action at all because he felt sorry for her. She was a single mum with small children.
Over time, her thieving continued, and he tried to justify his actions to himself and his wife by claiming that the employee was vital to the business and contributed more to it through her hard work and loyalty than she was stealing from it.
He lost a total of £50,000, and was further penalised because the taxman disbelieved his low profits.
My friend is an admirable person, and I'm sure you are too. However, you're both mugs.
You have to confront the employee in question. If you're worried about doing this on your own, get someone else involved too. You can handle the matter sensitively and compassionately - if there are mitigating circumstances, these can be taken into account. You don't have to involve the police if you don't want to, You can even (more fool you, in my opinion) give them another chance.
But what you mustn't do is to allow this to continue. It's not good for you, your business or, quite frankly, the person who has his or her hand in the till.

[redcrx]

"its difficult to replace this individual"

are you kidding? There are thousands of decent people out there looking for work at the moment,and probably just as many dishonest ones.

Unless of course this person is stealing from you because work and pay conditions are poor and they feel they have no choice? is this why you cant replace them?

I see no reason why anyone would allow a member of staff to continue to steal. If you confront them and decide not to sack them then fair enough, give them a second chance, but to ignore what they are doing and not mention it to them?? are you crazy?

[4getmenot]

what would CCTV do. You'd see who culprit was and then wouldnt do a thing about it. Sorry but there are decent people out there that need jobs and dont steal. Sack this thief.

[dothawkes31]

are you frightened of some sort of retaliation??? Does this person have a hold on you? Why don;t you give them other jobs and keep them off the till? I gave you loads of security measures in your last thread, there is no point waiting until you are out of business, if you indeed do treat your staff so well, why are you letting one selfish person put everyone elses's job at risk? Get this person off till duty, or make sure there are two people on the till at the same time.

[TTG]

Call a staff meeting. Explain what has happened and the amount taken. Say if it is returned anonymously no further action will be taken otherwise the police will be involved. There are plenty of good people who would love to replace the person responsible.

[birdofprey]

You obviously have your own reasons why you don't want to have to sack this person.

You should be aware, however that if they have been working for you for more than two years you need to be very careful how you go about the dismissal procedure.

The only way you can dismiss someone for 'Theft' is if they have been procecuted.

If you don't do it properly you could well find yourself in an industrial tribunal which could then order you to re-instate that person.

I would suggest that if you do go down that route you take expert legal advice.