Most employers could definitely have suffered employees’ theft. Whether you run a one-man business with few staff numbering 2-7 or a medium enterprise of about 10-70 employees or the large scale company with limitless number of staff, you are not an exception to this business-killer-syndrome. Though you may not have discovered, it doesn’t take away the possibility of your company suffering it. As an employee myself, who had worked in about three establishments, in sales, customer service and procurement roles respectively, before my recent job as a sales manager, I was dismayed at how employees could cage their conscience in running down the establishments where they work in. Do not misunderstand me, not every employee cheats. There are very good ones you won’t dare lose, they remain the backbone of your establishment. But the bad eggs in the staff roll, I believe, spoil a lot. Years of my working career have exposed me to these bad eggs and their activities, particularly those in sales, procurement and customer service.

How Do Employees Cheat? Sales officers leverage their positions to divert goods, this I have seen. Some when they sell a particular quantity of goods at a particular price, their entries into the company account are way too different from what they sell. So, you find misrepresentation of data in the invoice, receipt, vouchers and other certifications. In my first place of work, I could remember how my regional Sales manager connived with the account officer and some sales persons to steal silly. He was our boss. Some of us not attuned to his treachery could neither confront nor report him until about 6 months after, the management caught him and issued him direct sack letter.
What Reasons make employees cheat then?

There are different reasons why employees cheat. Yours may differ from mine but, these few I shall list out capture vividly the reasons and may not be of any major difference with yours. Experience shows employees cheat because:

1. They are not happy with their boss/ jobs: what I and my colleagues observed at my first place of work was that this was the primary reason our regional sales manager cheated. Our regional sales manager and his colleagues assigned to other regions were used to always talking bad about the Head of Sales Department. They were actually hated him. They felt he was too bossy (and actually he was). I could remember him reviewing the KPIs of the sales department severally with increased sales targets and no complementary incentive or commission. This ultimately affected everyone as the regional sales manager would in turn review our targets much higher without any additional incentives. That got us worn out and some resigned. So, when employees are badly treated, it would change their attitude to work and affect their performance.

2. They are not paid regularly and on-time: I haven’t personally had this experience as I have had the luck to work in organisations where pay is regular and on time. But, I believe this stands as a key indicator why employees cheat. I mean, why people work is basically to earn a living which is included in the salary and incentives they get. Should they fail to have their primary needs met, they may be forced to find other alternatives, which would be to steal.

3. They are naturally greedy and have the natural tendency to steal: Some persons just have that natural inclination to steal. They are just too greedy that nothing is enough for them. When I worked as a customer service officer with a manufacturing company, I enjoyed most. The staff were well remunerated. We were all happy. Yet, our procurement officer had no satisfaction. He forged virtually everything and hiked prices for anything he bought. No one knew what he had been doing until he was on holiday. The manager delegated a staff to procure some materials. That was how it all blew-up. There was about 40% slash in price this time. Agitated, the manager visited the records of the previously acquired products by the procurement officer. He had been scamming the company. Well, he resumed work after his holiday to collect his sack letter.

4. The company doesn’t have data capture system: through my experience, I believe this is the primary reason why employees steal and get away with it. Companies mostly neglect the great relevance of data capture and are ignorant of the fact that this could solve all their problems. I was exposed to the multiple solutions data capturing render a company where employees steal at my present place of work. Before I was employed, the Head of Sales Department had already established that all sales managers must use the data capturing system. And no one could run away from it. First off, all the employees including the Heads of Departments were captured. Our Biodata are stored in the system Logs and so, the company doesn’t worry sending a sales manager to faraway states to distribute goods.

By the way, what is Data Capture: should you wonder what data capture means, it is the method or process of collecting or gathering information of person(s), animal(s), plant(s), object(s) etc, and changing the information into computer readable form i.e. storing it in a computer device. This means that you can get and store information of anyone and anything on the computer, transform it into any form you like and retrieve it whenever you need it. However, it is not as simple as that. With my little experience about it, it is a complex and rigid process. Standard devices and machines are used for this as well as some high-tech programming. And because of this, there are companies that exist solely to help other companies capture and manage their data.

What benefits do companies get from Data Capture? Data capture is not all about apprehending cheating employees. In our company for instance, we have lots of benefit derived from Data capturing. First, with automated (Electronic) Data Capture, all invoices, receipts and purchase papers are entered into the Data base, with a single company password known to no one but the officer in charge. This way, no manipulation on sales or purchases is heard of. On my own part as a sales person, there are three people who are very important to me; they are the prospects, the leads and the converts. The prospects are the potential customers the sales person first has contact with and introduces the company goods and or services to; the leads are the ones who have begun to reason with your “sales preaching” and; the converts are the ones who have accepted your goods and services and become customers. Through these stages, you need a data capturing system to enter and manage the Biodata or information of the customers. This is because, the system enables you to remember their reactions when you first contacted them and effectively follow them up. Also, with data capture, you can build good customer experience. Sometimes, as a good customer relationship officer, it is expected of you to relate personally with the customers. When necessary, you could address them by their titles and names to show you are interested in not just having their patronage but building relationship with them. This is what Data Capture can help you do, as the system would automatically update the customer information when you inquire.

What About the Government: I strongly believe that Data Capturing is an exercise so versatile and all encompassing in rendering lots of solutions even to the government. Often we hear of billions of naira the government is losing to ghost workers, yet ghost workers are at large in the civil service. The solution is not far-fetched, Data Capturing. If the biometrics of the staff (staff enrollments) are properly captured, stored and well managed, then ghost workers could easily be buried in their respective graves.

So with Data Capture you know you save yourself from revenue loss and enhance the growth of your business or establishments.

My warning and advice however: beware of companies that manage your data. Should you fall into the hands of some of these, you will regret ever contemplating optioning for Electronic Data Capture services. Though I had not been employed at the time, but I was told of how my present company lost significantly to the inefficiency of a data capturing company it had contracted. Part of the problems ranged from duplication and loss of employees’ and clients’ data, systemic breakdown sometimes when there the company needed to retrieve data and, the major one, high cost of services. Therefore, you should be very careful with the company you assign the contract of data capturing to. For the past one year, our company has been using Bioregistra.com, the best platform to us. It’s needless to talk about their efficient, top-notch data capture solutions (services); you just try and find out yourself when you visit the site. Mine is to advise you. But to save your business, organisations and personal properties, from theft you sure need DATA CAPTURE.

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ERP/SAP software will do all the data capturing using the organization intranet to achieve informations from clients.

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