A lot of people who I talk to are intrigued by the concept of the Integrity Interview. In conjunction with a thorough investigation, this is a process that the big retailers use to deal with employee theft. Once the theft has been proven and documented, a member of Loss Prevention, usually a manager, will have a discussion with the dishonest employee. The goals are as follows:
- Get the employee to admit to the theft, verbally and in writing
- Allow the employee to explain why they are stealing
- Get the employee to disclose all the theft that they are responsible for
- Get the employee to share what other theft activity might be occurring by others
- Get the employee to tell the owner what processes need to be fixed to discourage the theft in the future
- Give the employee the opportunity to repay the losses back to the owner
- Encourage the employee to return any merchandise so that it can be sold or salvaged
- Discourage other employees from stealing
- Encourages the honest employees when they see that theft is being addressed
- Keeps the employee from suing the business
- Possibly keeps the employee from receiving unemployment benefits at the owners expense
- Thoroughly documents the entire investigation
This process can seem daunting to a small business but the rewards are tremendous. When done properly, the Integrity Interview is extremely effective for the business owner. The only other options are to just fire the employee or ignore the activity. Both of these should be unacceptable…it’s your money. No one should be allowed to take advantage of you in a way that could put you out of business. You’ve worked too hard.
