Theft, wastage and spillage can wipe out a large percentage of your profit – which can translate into millions of dollars per annum if your establishment is a large enough operation. Listed below are some tips and tactics to help reduce unnecessary loss of stock in your establishment.
- Propaganda is your friend – tell your staff that you will prosecute them if they are caught stealing (which may include theft or giving away drinks but is dependent on the laws in your area). Whether or not you prosecute them is entirely up to you, but you’ll scare off wannabe offenders if you ‘lay down the law’ from the beginning. Make it clear that you will not stand for theft or any similar misconduct and that you are willing to go above and beyond to reprimand those who do.
- Point your CCTV (Closed Circuit Television Cameras) towards your tills and the areas where your spirits (or your most expensive high-volume stock) are stored and served. Also have your CCTV point to areas around your cash safe, cash deposit boxes or areas where money is counted, to keep a close eye on those who handle your money. This also works in the opposite direction – it protects innocent staff from accusations of theft (they can prove their innocence using CCTV footage).
- Keep sensitive business information confidential at all times. Some bartenders may hold a grudge towards the bar owner if they know how much money they are making (and may be motivated to steal some for themselves).
- Sign off ‘suspicious’ staff at unexpected times, without warning. If any of your staff are planning to take money from the till ‘undetected’, chances are they will be planning fifteen or twenty minutes ahead to ‘rig’ the till to make it look like a sale has gone through, when it actually hasn’t. This is a common way for dishonest staff to take notes from your cash drawers. So, sign them off unexpectedly – if your hunch was correct, you’ve saved cash and prevented theft (although you’ll probably never prove it).
- Perform Z-Reads and sweep your tills regularly. Take large bundles of notes and put them into a secure area (a safe or deposit box). Removing large bundles of notes from cash drawers removes the temptation to steal them. Remember to have your ‘safe area’ under CCTV also.
- Never let your bartenders count their own cash, or void their own over-rings.
- Keep an eye out for high ‘over rings’ or a positive cash balance at the end of your shift. Dishonest staff may be creating false (commonly known as ‘phantom’) transactions to sneak money out of the till (as mentioned above) but missed their opportunity to take it. I’m not suggesting this is the only reason that your tills may be in a positive balance at the end of your shift, but being cautious may lead you to uncover a plan to take your hard earned money.
- Unusually high levels of wastage may mean staff are trying to cover up giving away stock (Is there a high volume of wastage recorded in your wastage register?). I advise you to add a ‘Time of wastage’ column to your wastage sheet, so you can cross-reference your CCTV cameras if you are suspicious of misbehaviour (In your wastage checklist, have the following columns: Date, Time, Name of staff member, Product, Amount wasted, Reason for wastage).
- Pay close attention to staff who have friends (or family) visiting your venue. Some staff will like to show off their ‘position of power’ behind the bar by giving away drinks. Unless you trust them completely, keep a close eye on their behaviour.
- Organise a phantom shopper (who is a close friend or associate) to sit at the bar and covertly observe the procedures of your staff.
- Conduct regular stocktakes, and interrogate your staff over any suspicious discrepancies. Doing so will demonstrate your concern for stock control, and you may uncover something you didn’t know previously.
- Offer your team a group incentive if they can consistently operate with small/zero stocktake discrepancies.
- Track wastage every day, and record who works each shift, every shift. You may be able to correlate a relationship between excessive wastage or unbalanced tills with the presence of a particular staff member.
- Set strict ‘tip jar’ guidelines. Place your communal tip jar at least two metres from the till, under CCTV coverage.
- Make sure you are seen watching your staff prepare drinks, or make sure your supervisors are doing so. Make sure your staff understand they are being watched.
- Remove the ‘no sale’, ‘open food’ and ‘open drink’ buttons from your POS system. Make sure every product has a button.
