Employee diversion is prevalent in most industries but is particularly challenging for cannabis companies, which often deal with large amounts of cash and a product that is in high demand. These factors make employee diversion difficult for businesses to identify and prevent. For hands-on guidance, Cannaspire’s Cannabis consultants work with operators at every stage.
Cannaspire’s team of cannabis security experts team knows where to look for diversion, what to look for, and can uncover leaks that you were unaware of.
Only 10% of product loss results from either external diversion, such as robberies, or simply poor tracking and record-keeping. The other 90% of financial and product loss in the cannabis industry can be chalked up to employee diversion. That is why it is crucial for dispensary owners to constantly monitor sales, inventory, and property.
There are a few scenarios employees can take advantage of. First, is an employee discount. If they are applying the discount to all of their friends and family, you will lose money. Additionally, depending on their clearance level, one can apply unauthorized discounts and pocket the remaining cash.
If you suspect an employee has been diverting money out of your dispensary and into their own pocket, you must first start by gathering the evidence.
The goal here is to either confirm or disprove any diversion that you suspect in your dispensary. Video surveillance is key when investigating a diversion. Your footage allows you to monitor your entire dispensary from any place at any time. Strategically placed cameras should give you a view of every square inch of your dispensary. They should also be above your POS Systems so you can have a visual of each cash transaction and who is making it.
Your cameras will prove what your POS system records. By monitoring your employee’s sales through the POS system, you are able to recognize staff shortcomings immediately. It’s important to keep a close eye on both the POS system records and video footage as they are your primary evidence retainers.
So you have gathered all of your evidence and have confirmed an employee is diverting money or product. What happens now? You have to make the decision quickly as to how you are going to approach this employee. It is helpful to have policies and procedures documenting how to handle these situations in place before they happen.
An employee that plans on diverting money will be able to achieve their goal. That is why it is vital to constantly monitor the POS system transactions as well as the video footage in order to minimize the potential damage. A step further, every adult-use or medical marijuana dispensary has to retain their video footage for at least 90 days to a year, depending on state regulations.
This is due to the high demand for the product and large amounts of cash creating a security issue. Archiving video footage is crucial for the gathering evidence phase of your diversion investigation because you will be able to go back and look through it for previous incidents.
Cannaspire (formerly CannaBeSecure) is a full-service cannabis security agency, providing everything from diversion investigations to video surveillance, secure transport, dispensary access control, security plans, and application writing.
As the only end-to-end security company that serves only the cannabis industry, our capabilities ensure that every aspect of your dispensary or grow operation is secure. Contact us today to secure your facilities! Cannaspire provides marijuana compliance consulting to keep your business on the right side of the rules.
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