Unmotivated workers can do far more damage than just delivering inferior service. They can also rob a company blind, according to Barry Brandman, president of Danbee Investigations, a New Jersey-based security and loss prevention consultant.

Brandman told WERC attendees that internal theft is the cause of nearly one-third of all business failures and that the cost of business crime exceeds $100 billion a year. According to various speakers at the conference, cargo theft accounts for a healthy chunk of that total, costing U.S. businesses between $25 billion and $35 billion a year.

Brandman said companies victimized by internal theft tend to share common traits. They include:

1. Making it too easy for dock personnel to collude with truck drivers;
2. Relying on traditional safeguards like alarms, guards, and closed-circuit television;
3. Making it difficult for honest employees to report theft or substance abuse;
4. Failing to weed out on-the-job substance abusers.

That last point is key. Nearly 90 percent of all employee substance abusers either deal or steal to support their addiction, Brandman said.