CHAMBER News:
- One out of every 30 retail workers has been arrested for workplace theft
The Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Breakfast Aug. 25 at which Los Alamos Police Cmdr. Oliver Morris will discuss ways to prevent employee theft and fraud.
The Rosebud Café is catering the 7:30 a.m. breakfast at UNM-LA in Building 2, room 230.
Employee theft and fraud costs businesses more than $3.5 trillion worldwide. The typical organization loses 7 percent of its annual revenues to employee fraud, according to a report from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). And, the National Retail Federation found that employees stole 5.5 times more than shoplifters.
Los Alamos, with its better-than-average education level, is not immune to the problems of employee theft. The ACFE study found that while 34 percent of office thieves only had a high school diploma, 21 percent had some college, 34 percent had a bachelor’s degree, and 11 percent held a postgraduate degree.
More than 37 percent of frauds were committed by managerial staff; however, one out of every 30 retail workers has been arrested for workplace theft.
Employee theft and fraud can take many forms:
- stealing cash or inventory;
- falsify time cards; steal credit card information;
- commit workers compensation fraud;
- steal identities or data from customers;
- steal office supplies;
- copy company digital assets;
- influence business transactions; and
- many more scenarios.
According to the ACFE the average office fraud is not detected for two years.
Chamber members can reserve a seat for the Chamber Breakfast on Employee Theft and Fraud on the events page of the Chamber website or by emailing nancy@losalamos.org or calling 505.661.4816. Chamber Breakfasts are a benefit of Chamber membership. The LANL Community Programs Office is the Chamber Breakfast sponsor.