Britain’s ‘gig economy’ “could be key driver” for internal dishonesty in retail sector
Britain’s ‘gig economy’ could well be one of the key drivers for a new wave of internal dishonesty in the retail sector as financial pressures and the perceived low risk of being caught act as tell-tale ‘trigger points’ for theft by members of staff. That’s according to research conducted by loss prevention and Human Resources (HR) professionals who interviewed a growing number of employees in relation to internal theft and fraud during 2017.
Research conducted by Wicklander-Zulawski (WZ) EU, the organisation that has trained thousands of loss prevention and HR professionals in non-confrontational interview techniques, reveals that, in 85% of cases, financial pressures provided the catalyst for staff dishonesty.
According to the latest figures issued by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), internal theft has risen by more than a third in the last 12 months.
Around 40% of those dismissed said that the lower risk of being caught was a motivation: another symptom of the so-called ‘lower-wage gig economy’ where high staff turnover is the norm.
A quarter of those interviewed stated peer pressure led them astray, but in one instance external gang pressure was cited, which echoes growing concerns over levels of violence and aggression being employed against retail staff as shown by research conducted only recently at the BRC, the Association of Convenience Stores and also via USDAW, the shop workers’ Trade Union.
Although external theft – ie shoplifting – is perceived to be the main reason for store losses, internal dishonesty by those in positions of trust often involves greater values of loss over longer periods of time. In 16% of cases, it was assistant managers who were dismissed for theft/fraud, while the research revealed that 13% of store managers left under a cloud.