Industrial City Essen with a Strong Working-Class Tradition: Employee Monitoring Protects Against Crime

As late as 1849, Essen was an insignificant small town with fewer than 9,000 inhabitants. Less than 50 years later, Essen had grown into a major city, expanding explosively to 672,000 residents by the outbreak of World War II—an increase of 663,000 people, or 7,366 percent (!) over 90 years. These figures are record-breaking. The cause? Coal and the Krupp AG, which created an unprecedented demand for labour in what was once rural Essen. Hundreds of thousands of workers moved with their families from all over Germany, Poland, Italy, and Turkey to the Ruhr region to answer the call of coal. This city is built on labour; without the traditional “proletariat,” it would be unthinkable.

Yet, despite respect for the immense hard work and sacrifices that created this city from nothing, it must not be forgotten that not every employee is loyal, and not everyone is satisfied. Employee monitoring is essential in most companies to maintain control and to limit crimes committed by staff. The economic detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Essen are ready to assist: +49 201 3840 9057.

Structural Change: Service Sector Now the Primary Employer

Although Essen’s original rise and success were based on industry—especially mining (the first coal mine in the area dates back to 1450), which employed up to 60 percent of the city’s socially insured workforce even in the 1960s—today around 80 percent of all jobs are in the service sector. Essen is strategically attractive for companies reliant mostly on office work: office rents are relatively low due to high vacancy rates, corporate tax and living costs are moderate, there is a large pool of skilled workers, and the city’s geographical location is not only reasonably prestigious but also highly international at the heart of the Ruhr and Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan regions.

Essen deliberately creates incentives for business-oriented service providers. Nevertheless, the industrial sector still accounts for almost a third of the city’s gross value added, and it should not be forgotten that much of the service sector exists to support industry and could not function without it. Moreover, the structural transformation is far from complete, with an unemployment rate of 12 percent, which is relatively high.

One aspect of the service sector boom in Essen particularly relevant for detectives is expense and accounting fraud, often committed by field employees. Here, our Essen-based detectives can help by observing the employee and documenting their daily routine: +49 201 3840 9057.

Workplace Theft – Proof Through Detectives at Essen Labour Market Centres

For many people in financial hardship, the most obvious solution is theft at the workplace, where they are familiar with routines and can later resell stolen goods. Essen, formerly Europe’s most important mining city, remains the largest employment hub in the Ruhr area. Accordingly, employee theft occurs frequently. Through observation or by embedding a detective within the company (inclusion method), perpetrators can be identified and documented in a legally admissible manner, allowing for immediate dismissal or other labour law measures.