Worksite theft occurs, and when it does, it will not only hurt your business because you will have to replace the stolen tools, but you will have to let go of some of your employees. Tools can be expensive and replacing employees can hamper your operations.
So if you want to run a tight ship, you should implement some measures to ensure that no one will steal tools from your company again. Aside from purchasing a heavy-duty industrial cabinet, you can try other ways to keep pilfering fingers from spiriting away your tools. Here are some tips you can use:
Have an inventory
One way to keep track of where your tools are and who’s using them is to have everyone sign a sheet indicating who’s using which tool, what time he took it out and what time he returned it. This way, everyone knows where a certain tool is and who’s using it at a certain time, so it’s easier to track them if it happens to go missing one day.
Also, the idea of tracking your tools by using the inventory system will motivate the employees to ensure that they return the things they used because if not, they will face the penalty for losing company property.
Padlock everything
As mentioned earlier, you can purchase heavy-duty industrial cabinets to store your tools in and have them padlocked after work hours so that no one can access them. You can either hold onto all the keys to those locks, or you can alternate it with one of your contractors whom you trust explicitly.
Situate parking far from work site
This might sound weird for those who have never worked in a construction site, but for those who have been working as a contractor for a long time, this makes perfect sense. Putting the parking space far away from your work site can deter your employees from stealing tools.
This is because they would have to hide the tools somehow, and you take away the convenience of proximity. To further strengthen your security, you could also implement a checkpoint at the exit of a work site.
After your employees have finished working for the day, make sure that there is only one exit for all the employees. A security guard should inspect their belongings to ensure that no tools are being hidden in their containers.
Ask your employees to cooperate
Another way to strengthen security in your worksite is to ask all your employees to report any suspicious activities happening on-site. If they notice someone constantly ducking into small spaces or acting shady, they should report it right away to the foreman to have that person investigated.
Put your name on your tools
Okay, do not take this literally. The point here is to personalise each tool by labelling it with the company’s name so that employees will be dissuaded to steal them. This is because tools that have a distinct look are harder to hide or be used in other situations for fear that someone may recognise them and report it as theft.
