The restaurant industry has always had problems with staff theft – that’s stealing of money and stock rather than people stealing the staff! There are numerous ways that your staff could be stealing from you and / or your customers.
Not ringing items into the till – this is by far the most common. Staff don’t ring items in the till and pocket the cash – especially prevalent in the bar. This also includes deleting items from the bill after the bill has been presented to the customer and they have paid cash. Keep a careful eye on what is deleted from the tills as well an on stock, will ensure that this is kept to a minimum.
Stock – stealing stock ie staff stealing food and drink putting the items in their bags at the end of the shift. This can be tricky as the main way of catching someone is by searching their bags. However the cannier thief will put bottles of spirits in the rubbish and leave stashed by the bins and collected when their shift is over.
Discount vouchers – managers / owners of restaurants should be the only ones to redeem vouchers. If you have a 2 for the price of 1 voucher on your website that customers can print and redeem them at the restaurant then staff can print them too and use them for the bills where the customer doesn’t have one.
Replacing brands – obviously this is more of a trick used in the bar. A bartender will bring a bottle of the cheapest vodka, whisky etc to work with them. They will fill up a premium brand bottle with the cheap stuff and when anyone orders that brand they pocket the cash. This is very difficult to find out as the stock level is not affected.
A lot of restaurants and bars have CCTV that cover the tills – however if the staff know that nobody ever watches them they will try it on – so make it know that you watch the play backs. Also do random till checks – this will help to reduce restaurant staff theft.
For help with preventing restaurant staff theft get in contact with Captivate Restaurants today on 020 7060 3318 or email info@captivate-restaurants.co.uk
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