Avoid Employee Embezzlement

Our focus on employee embezzlement is from the management/leadership perspective – not from the legal perspective (this website is for managers and leaders – not for lawyers).

In plain English, embezzlement is misappropriation, theft, or stealing.

Worker embezzlement is costing employers a fortune, regardless of company size, company’s sophistication, or industry type.

There are practically hundreds if not thousands of ways in which embezzlement takes place.

Besides the obvious fact of having all administrative processes in place required to avoid employee embezzlement, how do you go about to prevent it?

There is of course no straight answer to this, but practicing management and leadership best practices will help you go to the heart of the matter:

It all goes back to hiring day, hiring the best of the right candidates – take a look at our Job Interviewing Techniques page, and at our Sample Interviewing Questions page.

Hiring the right candidates doesn’t guarantee you 100 per cent anything, but you increase the odds in your favor.

This issue also goes back trust creation – take a look at our Leadership Characteristics page.

The issue also goes back to commitment and responsibility creation – take a look at our Basic Management Skills page.

Etc., etc., etc…

There is no 100 per cent guarantee against employee embezzlement, but there is a relationship between management and leadership quality and embezzlement.

The poorer your organization’s management and leadership practices are, the more open you are leaving the door for embezzlement, and vice versa.

The healthier your organization is, the more resilience your organization will enjoy, and vice versa.

Leading an organization is a holistic affair – take a look at our What is Systems Thinking section.

You won’t find the solution to embezzlement in one single recipe, but in your organization as a whole, in your management and leadership practice.

We know this article doesn’t provide you with a straight answer, but we also hope this article will motivate you to go the extra mile in order to improve your management and leadership skills.

–––~~~••• O •••~~~–––

To keep on learning about other useful skills, go back to the previous page, or click here.

To learn more about the skills you need to manage the performance of your direct reports, go to our Management Skills page.

To learn more about the skills you need to lead the performance of your entire organization, go to our Leadership Skills page.

If you would like your executives to improve their management and leadership skills and improve your organization’s health, in order to prevent employee embezzlement, please click on this link.