Small security guard companies tend to be more vulnerable to employee theft. The simple reason behind this is the fact that they don’t have the procedures or a security guard management platform in place required to prevent it. The owners often don’t believe their employees would dare steal from them. However, that might not be the case.
Employee theft need not always be in a physical form but in terms of time. And that’s the kind of theft that usually costs an owner more than anything else. So, how do you know if time theft is happening to you or not? Well, let’s answer these questions one by one.
How To Identify Time Theft?
Are you experiencing an increase in labor costs and a decrease in productivity levels significantly? In case yes, time theft could be one of the reasons why you should start considering and here’s how to spot it:
Taking Long Breaks
Occasionally taking longer breaks or not clocking out may be okay. If done regularly, it may become a problem as it is considered as one of the most common ways for employees to waste their time.
Excessive Personal Time
Employees do tend to steal company time by doing personal tasks at work. This situation turns into a case of time theft when they start doing it excessively. For instance, spending a lot of time on phone calls to deal with personal situations.
Time Rounding
When there is no security guard management platform with a powerful time clock to capture the exact clock-in/out time of the security guards, time rounding becomes another prominent version of time theft. The actual time of starting and finishing work can be easily lied about.
Unauthorized Hours
Overtime is a costly deal that every security guard company would like to reduce as much as possible. Therefore, security guards logging in extra, which has not been pre-approved, can be considered as another form of time theft.
Work Independently
Take note of the security guards who all of a sudden decide that they want to work by themselves, begin volunteering to work alone in an isolated area, or completely avoid working in teams. These are signs of a potential red flag.
Long Or Excessive Absence
Apart from genuine reasons, if a security guard who has been regular to work starts taking long or excessive leave, it should raise a concern.
Buddy Punching
Buddy punching occurs when security guards clock in for each other on-site, especially when one is running late or is absent from the workplace entirely. In this case, even the security guards with the best intentions can sneak a few minutes here and there.
To know how GuardsPro security guard management system platform insures against time theft, stay tuned for our next blog.
