Internal loss and fraud are not solely financial issues.  They are deeply rooted behavioral and cultural risks that directly impact the bottom line and the customer experience alike. Shrink does not happen in a vacuum. It is enabled by attitudes, normalized by silence, and sometimes protected by loyalty to peers or deference to managers. The gap between what employees know and what organizations can act on is precisely where loss compounds. This report is built from that gap.

The data presented here was collected from 8,721 employees across 133 risk-aware retail locations, a mix of big-box and grocery formats, all participating in active internal loss investigations. Each participant received a secure survey link via their work email or via proctor, with an organization-defined completion timeframe. Investigators had access to responses in real time. The average completion time was about 10 minutes, with a 55% median completion rate (High: 83%, Low 25%).

The Verensics Approach. Participants received a dynamic, adaptive set of questions that adjusted in real time based on their responses, behavioral patterns, consistency, cursor-tracking data, and other performance metrics, ensuring every participant was presented with the most relevant questions for their profile. As a result, not all employees were asked the same questions, and response frequencies vary across specific data points throughout this report. This approach provides an objective window into the gap between what employees know, what they observe, and what they are willing to report through formal channels.  Through this report you will learn about the 30X reporting gap.

What This Report Measures. For the first time, organizations gathered and interpreted employee-driven investigative intelligence at a scale, pace, and reliability that legacy methods do not approach. The analysis examines patterns across three behavior categories — Internal Loss, Discount & Credit Loss, and Reporting Inventory — and is organized around four investigative objectives: (1) Operational Integrity, (2) Employee Observations and Awareness, (3) Identification of Wrongdoing, and (4) Exposure of Systemic Loopholes. Within each area, findings are presented across employee involvement, attitudes toward misconduct, willingness to report wrongdoing, and direct observations of coworkers and managers.

By comparing the report findings against your organization’s own shrink metrics, incident rates, exception-reporting outputs, and whistleblowing/incident management data, you can benchmark your operational environment, prioritize intervention, and build a more accountable culture. Effective risk management begins with knowing what you do not know. Because you cannot fix problems you do not know exist.