3 Steps Help You to Prevent Employee Theft in Restaurants 13Apr

3 Steps Help You to Prevent Employee Theft in Restaurants


Despite the statistics, anyone having experience in the business will know about exactly how normal employee theft is behind the bar. Most bartenders will almost have not less than a couple of stories of incentive theft strategies and past colleagues caught (or not caught) in the act. This kind of tactic acceptance of the issue as being simply "part of the business" is to some extent and what makes it such a typical issue to manage.

The inclination among most of the managers and proprietors is that things like stock deficiencies and missing cash which are simply something that occurs in the fuzzy areas of late night cash ups and unpredictable stock takes. Mostly bars in any case, operate work with fairly relaxed strategies with regards to stock and cash control and accountability and usually these bars struggle the most with "stock shrinkage". On the other side, establishments that take basic steps to discourage and prevent theft are and proved to decrease losses substantially.

Consequently, it is indispensably important to make a culture where employees don`t feel like it is something they can get away with and realize that the outcomes are severe in the event if they are caught.

In this blog we`ll take a look at a selection of ways you can approach preventing theft in your business.

There are 3 steps involved:

  • 1: Prevention is better than Cure
  • 2: Make it Hard to Steal
  • 3: Catch them in the Act


Stage 1: Prevention is superior to fix

As mentioned, the first line of defense against theft is to make a working environment culture where, as much as could be expected, employees would prefer not to steal from the business. It is also vital to recollect that a lot of theft in bars isn`t really an aftereffect of malevolent stealing however frequently comes from the convivial atmosphere and blurred lines of many bar environments where employees may feel it is acceptable to pour themselves or a companion a free beverage.

Culture: Create a culture of responsibility and discipline amongst your group. This can run to things like zero resilience towards drinking at work (envision how much less demanding it may be to stash that cash after a couple of shots) to conducting consistent pour accuracy tests. The inclination that the entire group is well disciplined and the management is focusing on what they do behind the bar is often a solid incentive for bartenders to keep on the straight and narrow.

Understanding: Involve your staff in business execution indicators like cost of sales and week after week alcohol spend and exhibit how stock deficiencies influence the bottom line. A lot of theft comes from basically not understanding how enormous the effect of "simply this one" can be.

Trust: Hire staff you trust. Lead reference checks and search for bartenders that have hopped between various jobs in quick succession. Trust your hunch about people and listen in to other colleagues if they think something is suspicious. Keep in mind that it`s frequently the best and most experienced bartenders that are most guilty.

Stage 2: Make it difficult to steal

When you`ve done your best to ensure your employees would prefer not to steal from you, the subsequent step is to ensure they can`t. Implementing systems and physical hindrances to theft will go a long way to reduce bar theft. The extent of these measures will be subject to the extent to which you believe you are suffering from theft also, as your budget for these measures.

Systems: Thorough and intently monitored stock and cash systems can create an environment where workers will reconsider before stealing. This simple step is often enough of a deterrent to discourage everything accept the most determined thieves.

Lock it up: Keep additional stock locked away and limit the number of keys available for use to only trusted and basic staff.

Eye in the Sky: A great CCTV system is an essential component in both deterring theft and catching it. Covert specialists acting like visitors or even simply cautious observation of your bar can also be extraordinary for picking up abnormalities.

POS: DigitalPoint of Sale systems are far less susceptible to manipulation and unapproved actions than traditional cash registers.

Stage 3: Catch Them in the Act

When all these preventive measures are set up, the beneath rundown should help you to identify some of the common strategies for stealing from the bar. This isn`t a comprehensive rundown as scams like these are always showing signs of change and evolving however many will be variations from these corepractices.