Why do employees steal? That question has frustrated and angered business owners for decades. The act of theft violates the trust between owner and employee. And even if the theft is an isolated incident, it can poison the employer's relationship with the vast majority of workers who are honest.

Employees want to be treated with respect, not as potential criminals. Cash shortages often result from an honest mistake on the part of the cashier or the manager. However, the cash register is one of the most tempting targets for employee theft in a retail business.

How do you manage to trust your employees while still protecting your business? The best way is to have a clear set of procedures that all employees must follow without exception. Such processes communicate to employees that the cashier's job is to be taken seriously.

To begin, each employee should have a separate cash drawer. When two or three cashiers work with the same drawer, it is very difficult to distinguish an honest mistake from deliberate theft. A fresh cash drawer with a designated amount of cash for making change should be given to the incoming cashier. Count all cash at the start of a shift and sign the register tape. The sales tape and cash in the drawer should balance.
Immediately replace register tapes that run out. It's easy for a dishonest cashier to let the tape run out and then simply avoid ringing up a few sales in order to pocket the cash.

If large amounts of cash move through your registers, a surveillance camera trained on the register area may be a good idea. Explain to the cashiers that this is necessary not simply to discourage theft but also to protect them from suspicion and potential robbery.

Customers should receive a receipt for every transaction. Because each sale should be entered into the register to obtain a receipt, this simple control discourages the cashier from pocketing the cash either from an exact change transaction or a deliberate undercharge.

The store owner or managers can monitor the cash process by being the ones to approve all voids and over-rings. Additionally, the owner or manager should ring up all employee purchases. This practice will prevent employees from abusing this benefit by undercharging themselves or their coworkers.