Strategies for Employee Theft Prevention and Detection

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STRATEGIES FOR EMPLOYEE THEFT PREVENTION AND DETECTION To reduce employee theft, it is essential that appropriate preventive and detective techniques are in place. According to Managing Business Risk: A Practical Guide, a report sponsored by The Institute of Internal Auditors, The American Insitute of Certified Public Accountants, and Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, prevention emphasizes policies, procedures, training, culture setting, and communication to prevent theft from occurring, while detection involves activies taken to identify theft that is occurring or has occurred (IIA, AICPA, & ACFA, 2008, p.30). Organizations that want to prevent employee fraud must plan carefully and continually monitor the effectiveness of their anti-fraud controls. To fully achieve a corporate culture that emphasizes and reinforces employee honesty, companies should develop theft prevention strategies that could be “effectively implemented while minimizing the impact of [potential] problems” (Steven 2006) . Employee Theft Prevention Employee theft prevention is a proactive approach to deter theft perpetrators. The program includes selective hiring policy, implementation of positive workplace culture, and segregation of duties. Selective Hiring Policy The primary preventive technique is to implement a detailed and effective hiring policy. Brian P. Nichoff, professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at the Kansas State University College of Business Administration, and Dr. Robert J. Paul from Kansas State University College of Business Administration, suggest (as cited in Appelbaum, Cottin, Paré & Shapiro, 2006) that background checks should be conducted in the pre-employment stage as thoroughly as laws will allow. BDO Stoy Hayward is an audit, accounting and business service firm in United Kingdom. In its annual study called FraudTrack 3: Rising fraud in

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