Employees take advantage of businesses

A large proportion of British workers have confessed to stealing property or making money out of the firm that employs them, according to a new study. Research carried out by Royal & SunAlliance revealed that 82 per cent of employees - some 24 million people - have taken company property or exaggerated expense claims.

Workers typically take home small items, but the impact on the business won't be negligible given that 82 per cent of people admit to the dishonest practice, according to Royal & SunAlliance. Around a quarter of a million people have gone so far as taking a laptop home from work and never returning it, while half a million people claim more overtime than they worked, or lie about expenses, every day.

But investigating the reasons why employees steal from them could pay off in the long-run for businesses. The research found that one million of those people who'd taken something from their workplace did it because they considered it 'theirs' and more than 900,000 wanted to get at the company.

A separate study from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that 46 per cent of companies no longer adjust pay annually in line with cost of living, offering increases instead according to individual or collective input and inflation. In order for these kinds of pay rise decisions to work, the report said the structure needed to be communicated sufficiently to employees - something which only a third of organisations are confident actually happens. Charles Cotton from the CIPD said employees were often left bewildered as to the effect - if any - changes to their pay or reward packages would have on their role. He advised that businesses invest in training line managers to communicate such issues effectively.

Investment in employees is the theme of another recent report from TalentDrain, which found that not only could businesses lose property through a lack of employee awareness, they could also lose skills. Some 75 per cent of organisations were found to have no budget or policy in place to promote staff retention and just four per cent were using exit interviews as a strategic tool to monitor reasons for leaving.

For the small business, it can seem that implementing practices to promote staff loyalty is expensive and so competing with larger firms will be hard. But Victoria Winkler from the CIPD has pointed out that non-financial benefits are becoming more important, such as the hands-on experience that can often be better gained at a small company. She added that small businesses can look at things like flexible working and the whole work-life balance agenda which is increasingly important to the graduate.

Disclaimer:
This article has been written for information and interest purposes only. The information contained within this article is the opinion of the author only, and should not be construed as advice or used to make financial decisions. Expert financial advice should always be sought and any links contained within this article are included for information purposes only.

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Andrew Regan is an online, freelance author from Scotland. He is a keen rugby player and enjoys travelling.

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