US – Pilfering employees have always been a serious problem. Nevertheless, the current economic downturn has managed to translate into yet another problem – an increase in the number of workplace thefts, especially so for the larger companies with 10,000 or more employee).

After i4cp conducted The Workplace Theft Pulse survey among 392 respondents in November last year, it found 15% of all respondents and 27% of respondents in large companies say that crime in the workplace has risen. Almost a quarter (24%) noticed an increase in the stealing of company owned items such as office supplies, electronic equipment, products that are produced by the company itself and even food items.

Companies also say they have experienced an overall of 18% increase in more serious problems such padding of expense reports, disappearance of cash and other employee-related monetary crimes since the downturn.

To combat this problem, 28% of all organisations are resorting to open communication channels when dealing with the issue. Twenty percent are say they are conducting additional audits while 19% of companies overall are paying more attention to background checks prior to the hiring of new employees.

Jay Jamrog, i4cp’s senior vice-president of research acknowledged the fact that the results are hardly surprising, considering the effect of the mounting economic pressure on employees. He adds, “What’s important for employers to recognise is that this increase is likely and while much of their attention is probably focused externally on threats to growth in their market, they better also be cognizant that business threats can originate from the inside as well.”

Global – Two out of five corporate management teams still do not value human resources as a strategic asset, in spite of the economic downturn.

Nevertheless, Workforce Management and EquaTerra conducted a survey of 250 human resources decision-makers from around the world, reported some good news for HR professionals. Among the big companies with over 50,000 employees, 71% of the management teams see HR as a strategic player. Many HR leaders also report recent progress in increasing HR’s strategic role.

This can be considered to be a good move, since the studies have also found that there is a positive correlation between companies which recognises HR’s strategic importance and higher levels of satisfaction with the entire HR function.

Stan Lepeak, managing director of EquaTerra said that a sizable minority of companies that do not recognize HR’s strategic potential are putting themselves at a serious disadvantage. “How do you recruit new talent when you’ve got a tarnished image, or keep from losing all your best people? How do you keep productivity up? You should be looking to HR to help address these problems, and to put in changes that can keep them from happening again in the future,” he adds.

Even so, 78% of the respondents agreed that making HR more strategic would entail “a significant change in the mindset of executives and business unit leaders.” Most executives still do not see HR as an indispensable asset and this is believed to hinder progress in the HR department.

“The HR people may feel that executives see them just as a back office group that runs the payroll, and they may complain that they’re not being offered a seat at the table but sitting back and waiting for the opportunity isn’t a good idea. In most cases, if you step up and show value, you’re going to be invited in, not pushed back. If you’ve never taken the initiative, it’s kind of your own fault,” challenged Lepeak further.