A substantial proportion of British workers have confessed to stealing house or making money from the agency that employs them, according to a new study read this. Analysis performed by Royal & SunAlliance revealed that 82 per cent of employees – some 24 million people – have taken company house or exaggerated expense claims.

Workers typically get home small items, but the impact on the business won’t be negligible given that 82 per cent of people admit to the dishonest practice, in accordance to Royal & SunAlliance. Around a quarter of a million people have gone so far as taking a laptop home from work and never returning it, while half a million people claim more overtime than they worked, or lie about expenses, every day. But investigating the reasons why workforce steal from them could pay off in the long-run for businesses. The exploration found that one million of those people who’d taken something from their workplace did it because they considered it ‘theirs’ and more than 900,000 wanted to get at the company.

A separate review from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that 46 per cent of companies no longer adjust pay annually in line with cost of living, offering increases instead according to individual or collective input and inflation. In order for these kinds of pay rise decisions to work, the report said the structure needed to be communicated sufficiently to staff members – something which only a third of organisations are confident actually happens. Charles Cotton from the CIPD said staff were often left bewildered as to the effect – if any – changes to their pay or reward packages would have on their role. He advised that enterprises invest in training line managers to communicate such issues effectively.