Introduction
The field of hotel services has grown rapidly in recent years. More and more hotels are opening around the world, expanding the sphere of influence of various giants in this area. The Covid pandemic, which in some ways slowed down the development of the hotel business, played a significant role in this, but after the lifting of the ban on flights, people who spent most of their time at home were finally able to visit other countries, which accelerated the development of this industry. As the number of hotels around the world began to multiply, there was also a need to hire employees at short notice. This strategy, where quantity dominates quality, could not help but have an impact on the general area, as employee theft has become a recurring issue, which carries a large number of risks.
Employee Theft in the Hotel Industry
This problem, despite the development of the hospitality industry, is long-running. Every year, this type of business incurs vast losses, estimated at billions of dollars. It concerns not only the theft of money from hotel rooms but also other items of value, which can also lead to substantial losses. It is therefore evident that theft in the hotel business is one of the most significant problems, which undermines customer confidence and poses reputational risks for the entire industry. It is connected with the fact that the guests can not be fully confident in the safety of the establishment and prefer not to trust the employees, which significantly affects the overall assessment of the institution (Lee & Lee, 2022). Any theft, even if it is insignificant, can cost the hotel dearly, as, in the era of digital technology, people are able to leave their feedback, which will affect further development of the institution.
As mentioned earlier, theft carries significant reputational risks and brings negative attention from law enforcement agencies. Frequent robbery in the hotel can bring troubles for the owner of the institution, as well as for the business as a whole, as it attracts too much attention from the surrounding people. In addition, it is essential to understand that this also has a negative impact on the constancy of customers, who in the future could use the services of the hotel again. Even the most minor theft may prevent them from using the hotel’s services again. In addition, there are also consequences for perpetrators, which means that when they notice a problematic place where it is easy to commit theft, they are sure to take advantage of it (Nguyen & Truong, 2021). Therefore, preventing thefts is an essential task as criminals may be tempted to commit more serious crimes.
Employee Theft in Different Departments
Hotels are complex organizations with multilayered structures, which have to reflect the tasks that entities in the hospitality industry face. Subsequently, each hotel has to have a number of departments, responsible for greeting new visitors, housekeeping, food service, maintenance, financial accounting, and other functions that hotels need to perform (Lee & Lee, 2022). However, as much as each department is essential for hotel functioning, such organization also creates opportunities to commit crimes.
Each of the departments has high-value value property that can be stolen or displaced. For instance, financial department has access to money, which always creates criminalistics temptations. Kitchens possess a wide variety of costly appliances and gourmet food, which may also serve as theft targets. However, the majority of stealing opportunities emerge in housekeeping departments (Lee & Lee, 2022). The reason for this is that employees gain access to personal items of guests. Although security measures provide clients with an opportunity to protect their possessions, people can forget about them, thus creating a stealing opportunity for dishonest employees.
Theft Motivation
The main motive for hotel theft is the value of the property that can be obtained in a robbery. Frequently stolen items are mainly expensive equipment, which is taken on vacation, as well as various appliances and jewelry purchased during the holiday. Such property theft is motivated by the opportunity to sell stolen goods and equipment (Dental Abstracts, 2021). It is also worth noting that, depending on their experience, the robbers who work in the hotel will be more trustworthy. It is more difficult to accuse them of theft and, as a consequence, to catch the criminals. In addition, the security system in hotels is mainly unreliable and allows robberies to be committed more openly, without the need to clean up the evidence or provide an alibi (Dental Abstracts, 2021). Therefore, it is difficult for law enforcement to identify the real culprit and pass a fair sentence.
Types of Theft
It is also essential to understand that quite often, there are cases when theft is actually unintentional. The hospitality industry has a number of informal practices regulating relationships between customers and employees. Tipping is an example of such practice, which presupposes work bonus, which are intentionally left for housekeepers by guests. However, in some cases, unintentionally forgotten items may be mistaken for work bonuses. Such a scenario showcases the unintentional type of property.
It is crucial to understand that unintentional robbery can also be accidental on the part of superior management. It should be taken into account that the definition of robbery in the hospitality industry cannot be clearly formulated since each situation involving the theft of property can be interpreted differently (Goh & Kong, 2017). In all cases, unintentional theft is drastically different from the intentional type, which has the deliberate intent of robbing and reselling goods at its core.
The examples described above are tangible, meaning they refer to physical objects. However, theft can also be intangible, where there are no physical pieces of property that are missing. Probably, the most prominent target of intangible theft is the identity of the person who has checked into the room. With access to personal belongings, the intruder can fabricate some data or visit the intellectual property of the victim. Cases in which a burglar could cheat the system and commit an atrocity under the name of another person are abundant (Sumrell-Benitez, 2018). Such crimes are complex and require substantial theft prevention measures on the part of hotel management.
Employee Theft Prevention
It is evident that this problem requires radical solutions and approaches, which will protect customers from robberies and protect the hospitality industry from reputational risks. The most popular practices companies use in order to prevent theft are the installation of video surveillance cameras and careful selection of new employees. For this purpose, some steps have been developed that allow reducing the risk of theft and improving security, thus alleviating the pressure on people on vacation (Chebet et al., 2019). First, it is necessary to conduct a more careful selection of future employees for the vacancy. More and more hotels have moved to a more detailed review of their employees as the pandemic era has passed, and there is no such need to search for any possible employees who are looking for work. As employees now have more experience and trust from employers, there is no such need for them to steal other people’s property.
Second, another strategy has been employed, which encompasses better salaries and bonuses for exemplary work. Appendix A depicts the statistics of employment rate in the hotel industry based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data (Freitag, 2021). It showcases qualitative changes in the workforce due to changes in hotel hiring policies. The value of stealing property has been mitigated by increased salaries and the introduction of numerous employer-provided bonuses (Lee & Lee, 2022). As a result, the employer will not have to worry about reputational losses from theft in their establishment. Trust in employees allows employers look more attractive on the job market and to expect understanding from people who work in the same place (Chen & Sandino, 2017). Such a step allows to ensure a friendly working atmosphere, where there is no place for criminal activity. Simultaneously with the spread of an openness policy among employees, companies are introducing a tough stance on theft. This applies not only to firing an employee but also to referring the case to law enforcement. Therefore, companies nowadays strike a balance between a friendly attitude and harsh punishment for misconduct.
All these steps have proven to be effective over a long period of time. They have helped to reduce the number of thefts and also further develop the network of hotel businesses around the world. Nowadays, the trust in hotel security has increased, with more people feeling protected (Lee & Lee, 2022). Nevertheless security remains a priority in hotels despite the decreasing trend. It is also worth noting that over time, additional ways to reduce robbery among employees and administration will be developed. Today we can also pay attention to the development of computer technology, which allows monitoring the movement of employees between rooms. It is one the ways to combat theft because one can at any time check the whereabouts of a person or view records from previous days (Wick, 2019). Even though such measure may lead to privacy violation, it is an effective way to prevent theft.
Recommendations on Managing Employee Theft
Naturally the use of hidden cameras in hotel rooms raising questions about a person’s privacy. Despite the fact that the method of video surveillance is fundamental in ensuring security, the intrusion into another person’s life is seen as violation of human rights and freedoms. Subsequently, hotel guests may protest averse to the use of CCTV cameras in hotel rooms, even under the pretext of preserving the safety of clients.
A possible alternative solution is the use of electronic tags. These are small employee tracking devices that record the occupancy of a room, which send the data to the main computer. Appendix B showcases an example of an electronic tag used on a person (Use of electronic tags to be extended, 2018). This type of tracking allows establishing the location of the person at any time with high accuracy. More importantly, it does not lead to the invasion of privacy, as was the case with the use of video cameras (Avitzur, 2020). The significant disadvantage of this method is that it can be circumvented using other tags that are freely available. With some programming knowledge, it is possible to cheat the tracking system and expose any geolocation.
In addition, the use of this device can significantly affect the rights of the employees themselves, who do not like the use of tracking methods over their work, and, as a consequence, there is a growing distrust between subordinates and their superiors. Therefore, it is extremely important to train employees in the field of hotel security, which would convey them the necessity of theft prevention measures.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be stated that with the development of information technology, the level of security in hotels is also rising, as security and hiring standards become more sophisticated. Now there is no such need to accelerate the hiring process, nor is it necessary to spend too much funding. It is also essential to keep in mind that the problem of employee theft has existed for a very long time, and attempts to solve it have been made before (Dolasinski & Roberts, 2021). As it can be seen, each solution has its own compromises, which do not prevent form labelling them as impeccable. This is true for such measures as the use of CCTV cameras in hotel rooms, which have received numerous complaints from customers themselves, who are concerned about their personal space. In the future, therefore, it will be necessary to consider more steps to stabilize the situation with regard to the security of both tangible and intangible assets, regardless of the premeditation of the crime.
References
Avitzur, O. (2020). How you can avoid being the unwitting victim of employee theft. Neurology Today, 10(3), 26–28.
Chebet, W. V., Makomere, J., & Karei, R. (2019). Effect of employee engagement on employee turnover intention in hotels within Eldoret Town, Kenya. The International Journal of Business & Management, 7(11).
Chen, C. X., & Sandino, T. (2017). Do internal management controls mitigate employee theft in chain organizations? SSRN Electronic Journal.
Dental Abstracts (2021). Employee and accounting controls to reduce theft. Dental Abstracts, 66(3), 152–153.
Dolasinski, M., & Roberts, C. (2021). Employee engagement and balance scorecard performance in full- and select-service hotels. Academia Letters.
Freitag, J. (2021). Hotel industry’s employment data paints bleak picture. CoStar Insight.
Goh, E., & Kong, S. (2017). Theft in the hotel workplace: Exploring frontline employees’ perceptions towards hotel employee theft. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 18(4), 442–455.
Lee, H., & Lee, J. (2022). Cases of employee theft in the hospitality industry. International Chrie.
Nguyen, P. M. B., & Truong, G. N. T. (2021). Employee theft behavior. International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management, 12(3), 1–20.
Sumrell-Benitez, H. D. (2018). Employee theft: Company’s assets at risk. SSRN Electronic Journal.
Use of electronic tags to be extended. (2018).
Wick, J. Y. (2019). Sticky fingers: Dealing with employee theft. The Consultant Pharmacist, 24(9), 695–699.
Appendix A
Appendix B
