Employee Theft Essay, Research Paper

The following memorandum written by a director of a security and safety consulting service discusses a critical issue effecting business in our economy today, that of employee theft. “Our research indicated that, over past six years, no incident of employee theft have been reported within ten of the companies that have been our clients. In analyzing the security practices of these ten companies, we have further learned that each of them requires its employees to wear photo identification badges while at work. In the future, we should recommend the uses of such identification badges to all of our clients.” The issue of employee theft is a broad problem and has different labels to identify it, shrinkage for the retail industry and hidden profit loss in the technology sector are serval examples of common terms used for employee theft. The author of this memorandum presents several data points and suggests one recommendation to effect the issue of employee theft based on a sampling of the client population. The overall recommendation of “?the use of such identification badges to all of our clients.” sounds reasonible. A closer look at the conclusion that identification badges alone will resolve the greater issue of employee theft is difficult to support with the amount and type of data given. In today’s complex business environment, an identification badge would not address much greater corporate assets and their protection. To the technology industry for example, intellectual property assets are the heart and arguably the primary essence of success for some companies. There seems to be a great deal of unknown evidence that the author is basing this conclusion on when he states “…we have further learned that each of them requires its employees to wear photo identification badges while at work.” To make this recommendation of identification badges more meaningful, it would be advantageous to explore other improvements that could work in combination and reduction scenarios for employee theft. In addition, it would be useful to understand several essential components of the data analysis given to make the overall recommendation for changing clients current security practices. One suggestion would be to depict the primary classifications of business for each of the ten clients used in the analysis and their respective number of employees. When the demographics are clear, the author could discuss other commonalities found between identification badges and reduction in employee theft. An example would be to point out if there was any evidence of particular uses of identification badges beyond main entry and exit of the facility. Such an aspect of identification badge usage could be the analysis of user identification for access to critical systems or tracking times spent in a particular area by an identification badge-scanning device. The author could also expand the on the statement “Our research indicated that, over past six years, no incident of employee theft have been reported within ten of the companies that have been our clients.” In the analysis regarding types of employee theft over the past six years there is a larger opportunity to lay out trends and industry specific situations that could be beneficial to the decision making process of the perspective client. As with any recommendation to a potential client you would want to first educate them on the overall statics concerning the particular issue you are trying to persuade them to take action on. For employee theft, there should be data published from government agencies that would give broad industry information and regional impacts of this issue. This government data combined with the security and safety services client history could be combined to create more specific profiles and allow a more targeted approach. Computer manufacturing, Jewelry sales and large retail outlets are client areas that could be targeted. These types of business all have small highly valuable, easy to sell outside their primary market items that can be a prime target for employe theft. It would also be helpful to be more specific and explain sample security practices that are effective in deterring employee theft. This would include current client situations and simulated environments to highlight specific industry situations. When the author indicates that “In the future, we should recommend the uses of such identification badges to all of our clients.” this assumes that clients are readily able to invest in or can easily change their individual security practices. This strategy will be more successful through implementing expanded data analysis that will educate the client and then explore what needs currently exists for that particular client’s situation. Finally, discussing all the other opportunities as it relates to engaging clients in changing their security practices would allow for the optimum solution for the client and execution from the security and safety service.

Bibliography

Anylitical Essay Documnet 1999