CONTROL THEFT IN THE ORGANIZATION

PREPARED FOR :PN. NOR HASHINA BINTI BAHARUDIN

1. INSTITUDE , AND ENSURE PROFESSIONAL HIRING PRACTICES.

Ensure the proper screening methods are used during hiring operations.

Every employee should understand that reference will be checked before any hiring decision will be made.

Employee who are hired after exposure to thorough reference checks and indoctrination are usually better employees because they know that management is aware of their backgrounds, recognizes their application statement to be honest and is likely to tolerate dishonestly.

2. ESTABLISH POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION TECHNIQUES FOR

EMPLOYEES. Large properties require identification of all employees,

usually by a badge system that contains photograph, signature and a colour code indicating the department or work area of the employee.

Such identification systems discourage people bent on thievery from trying to pass as employees.

Colour identification of badges or even name tags identify the work areas of employees and expose employee who are out of their work areas without good explanation.

Special uniforms also identify employees as to work area, provided that such uniforms are not off-the-rack uniforms that may be purchased by anyone.

3. CONDUCT THEFT ORIENTATION AND ATTITUDE TRAINING.

• Employees should understand that it is each person’s duty not only to encourage honestly among fellow

workers but also to confront and bring forth those who would cause any employee to fall under suspicion of

dishonestly.• Employees should be taught that during such a moment,

their attitude, composure, and behaviour will tend to foretell future actions on the part of the guest and even

management.• Employee actions should be helpful and cooperative.

• Employees should also be informed that records involving items missing from rooms cleaned by GRA

will be maintained in employee personnel files.

4. SUPERVISORS SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR BEHAVIOUR AND ADHERE TO COMPANY POLICIES AND PROCEDURES DURING

EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND PROBATIONARY PERIODS.

- Management and supervisors should demonstrate the organizational attitudes towards employees and the manner in which employees are to be treated thus

giving the employee an opportunity to learn about the company before employment becomes permanent.

- Employees should not be passed into permanent full-time employment without some evaluation of their attitudes towards guests, other employees,

property, and company assets.- Employee is allowed to pass into full-time permanent status with

questionable attitudes about the company and its guests, which may later prove to be grounds for termination, when all during probationary

employment the evidence was present but not challenged. 

5. INAUGURATE AND CLOSELY ADMINISTER A PROGRAM OF KEY CONTROL

- The large number of multipurpose keys maintained within the housekeeping department makes it necessary for a key-control program to be all-

encompassing and strictly enforced.- Keys must be properly accounted for at all times, either as inventory in a key

locker or properly logged out.- Worker should be provided with a way to attach keys to their persons so that

they need not be unattached while being used.- The loss or misplacement of the master key must be immediately reported to management, and location of the key must take precedence over further work.- Guestroom keys left by departing guests and subsequently found by GRAs who are cleaning the rooms must be safeguarded by the GRA and not left on

the top of GRAs’ cart.- The hotel should have someone regularly pass among the working GRAs to

retrieve and return such keys to the front desk. 

6. HAVE A RED TAG PROGRAM

- Property given to an employee or awarded from the lost-and-found can be removed under the protection of a red tag system.

- Red tag, are issued by management as to employees after the manager has examined

the item to be removed.- Tags should be attached to parcels and collected by security personnel as the

parcels are removed from the premises.

7. HAVE REGULAR LOCKER INSPECTIONS.

- Conducted primarily to ensure that items such as company property, drugs, alcohol

and soiled uniforms are not being allowed to accumulate in locker.

- The knowledge that a locker inspection could occur at any time tacitly disqualifies

the locker as a place for temporarily storing contraband or stolen items.

- Employees should also be informed as to the purpose of locker inspections

8. INVENTORY CONTROL PROGRAMS SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED AND PHYSICAL INVENTORIES REGULARLY

CONDUCTED WITH RESULTS (AND IMPLICATION) PUBLISHED TO THE ENTIRE DEPARTMENT.

- Guest supplies, cleaning supplies, linens and other capital items should be inventoried regularly and the results and

implications presented to all employees.- Special recognition should be made in front of the entire

department.- Admittance to storerooms and issuance of supplies should be

limited to a few employees.

9. KEEP RECORDS OF MISSING ITEMS OF GUESTS AND OF THE

HOTEL.When items are reported or found to be

missing, make cross-reference files of the item by type and of the employee who could

have been involved. 

10. EMPLOYEE PARKING SHOULD NOT BE ADJACENT TO THE

BUILDING.- Employee parking areas should be

sufficiently far away from buildings and structures so as to make it difficult to slip in and out of an entrance several times a day

and into a parked car.- Areas to and from employee parking should

be well lighted. 

11. TRASH HANDLING REQUIRES SPECIAL CONSIDERATION.

- Trash collection and disposal should be monitored by different supervisors on a rotating

basis.- Because of the possibility that trash might be

used to hide contraband, it should not be allowed to accumulate near incoming supplies

and equipment.- Employees automobiles should be periodically

observed, and any employee cars that are parked near a trash disposal site should be

carefully checked.

12. ENLIST EMPLOYEES AS PART OF THE SECURITY TEAM.

- GRAs and supervisors can be valuable in theft prevention and security by reporting suspicious

behaviour by guests, damage to rooms, items noted as missing from rooms, and special or unique types of belongings noted in opened luggage in guestrooms.

- All housekeeping personnel should know on sight all engineering personnel.

- Satellite linen rooms and other storage areas should always be kept locked unless attended.

- Strange items or packages found adrift or in hallway corridors could spell trouble and can even be worthy of

an immediate phone call to the security department

13. WHEN PROBLEMS ARE SUSPECTED, BRING IT AN EXPERT.

- Hire an expert snoop- The snoop applied for work as a section housekeeping aide, giving the appearance

that he could neither be read nor write.- The actual identity of the snoop was

limited to only the executive housekeeper and the resident manager.

14. SET THE EXAMPLE.

The executive housekeeper must demonstrate that the rules and controls

outlined apply to management, as well to the most junior employee, to the fullest

extent.