Finding the Delicate Balance – October 2009

One of the things that makes this industry great is the relationships that are forged. When a dealer wins an industry award he invariably says something along the lines of, “I could not have achieved this without the hard work and dedication of my loyal employees.” And when I speak with dealers about their employees they often compare them to family.

When doing research for this issue’s cover story, Stopping The Executive Thief, I was struck by the fact that what I perceive as a strength-trust in your fellow man-can actually be a weakness that can be exploited.

I would hate to see dealers lose one of the things that I think makes their businesses so special. But I also hate to think about you losing money by failing to recognize the fact that sometimes circumstances conspire to cause good people to do bad things.

Most people who end up embezzling from their employers do so because of some economic need. Their sister loses her job and needs help paying her bills, their mother gets seriously ill and medical bills mount up or the investments they made that would have allowed them to send their son to college have declined in value to the point where college may not be an option.

The psychology of embezzlement is fascinating. If an employee is going to take money from your dealership, he is not going to perceive it to be stealing. He almost certainly will go into it thinking he is just taking a loan from you that he intends to pay back. Of course, things spiral out of control because the need does not go away and he keeps taking money.

When a dealer discovers that a valued and trusted employee has been stealing from him, he often is devastated and not so much because of the lost money. What hurts most is the violation of trust. In many of the stories I was told while researching my article, I heard over and over again that when the dealers discovered the theft they said things like, “I would have given you the money, if you had just told me you needed it. That is how valuable you are to me and this organization.”

And that is one of the reasons truck dealerships are such great places to work. Dealers actually care about the people who work for them. But the reality is sometimes people we care about make stupid mistakes and you need to make sure you do not fall victim to their bad decisions.

You need to find a balance between completely trusting someone and having so many controls in place that people feel like they are being watched every minute. You want to, and you need to relinquish some responsibilities to others.

However, when you do so, remember to put some oversight in place. Take a close look at your dealership and see where your vulnerabilities are. Take steps to reduce risks in those areas. Remind your employees that when someone steals from the dealership it affects everyone at the dealership.

And let your employees know that you not only put procedures in place to lower your risks, but that you will be spot checking things from time to time.
As Jonathan Wilke, senior manager, Dixon Hughes says, “I trust that my children are brushing their teeth before they go to bed, but every now and then I go in the bathroom to see if their toothbrushes are wet.”