Employee Lost Mobile In Office - Who's Responsible?

Dear Sujata,
I would advise one thing from my experience I have seen that if you get yourself involve in all these, you will be unnnecessary courting trouble. Today it is mobile, tomorrow it will be specs, someday it will be somebody's tiffin and the list continues. A situation may also arise where you take action against someone on basis of complaint and it turns out to be a prank or joke, and then what happens is that both parties shake hands and say sorry while you will be left with wasted time, energy and strain relationships and lot of explanations.
Reagrds,
SC

Hi Swastik
Well said. It could be a fun for others while me wasting my time unnecessarily on the stuff which doesn't require attention.
Thanks
With Warm Regards
Sujata

Hi Sujata,
First, the employee should be made aware of the difference between Office and Private property.
Secondly, you may get an informal inquiry / investigation done by a senior person in that dept, to bring out the facts - sequence of events etc.
Like others have already brought out - cash, valubles etc are the individual's responsibility and not that of the company.
All this should be done in way that the employee relaises this in an understanding and not antagonising manner.
Regards,
Kurra Sarat

PUt up a notice :idea:
" Employee apne samaan (aur Sabotage) ka khud Zimmevaar Hai"
LOL :lol:

Hi there,
Personal belongings that you bring to the office,,it's safety is the responsibility of the individual. The Company need not pay.
However, here is a suggestion so it does not occur in future. Make a lost & found Locker at a convenient place in your office. The charge of the locker may be given to the caretaker(s) of your office (Person reponsible for closing and opening of office.)You can instruct them to keep such items in the locker and report the same to the administartive head for informing others in the office via circular, mail, what ever is convenient at your place. During office hours, such items should be deposited at the reception counter or Admn. dept. (what ever you have).
daizy

Dear Daizy,
Sorry to say this, but I feel these type of issues should be nipped in the bud. Any action on part of the management regarding lost and found will result in unnecessary wastage of valuable time. The line should be drawn between Personal and Professional and how much we are ready to serve and where our services ends. What we as HR should do at the most is that if somebody inform about an unclaimed article we circulate the information in the office and state the name of the employee from whom it can be collected and in case of factory we issue a Notice and keep the article with Administration. Nothing more.
Regards,
SC

Hi
Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I am overwhelmed with the kind of suggestions I am getting.
Thanks once again for your kind support.
Best Regards
Sujata

Hi Sujata,
Please penalise that employee for being so careless and forgetful that he lost his mobile. If he can't safeguard his own simple mobile, how can the company trust him with valuable documents, properties of different nature? Also, penalise him for having stolen the company's time for talking thro the mobile during office hours, if he had not obtained your permission for using his mobile in office.
Issue a suspension order immediately or at least a warning memo. Without this, you have not done your job.
Jeeva

Hi Sujata,
Incidents like this keep happening in our office as well and employees keep blaming the inadequate safety system in the office for the same. It is next to impossible to ascertain the culprit/s.
I agre with Pradeep on this that the onus of keeping ones things safely lies with the employee. What if the cell was lost at home...? I guess if adequate care is taken in keeeping ones belongings safely incidents like this can be averted.
Regards
Richa

Yeah, I too agree that payment should not be made by the company. If ever payment is made for such cases, there might be fraudulent cases also when such things are not lost by the employees in the office at all and still they claim damages![/b]