These are tough economic times. People need money, and your employees will steal. Not all employees, of course, but the ones who are desperate may take risks that they have never dared take before. Then there are the other workers, the ones who believe your inventory, office supplies, and even the company funds are sources for supplementary income.
I am not necessarily talking about petty theft here. Some will steal big time. In industries like the garment industry, it is not entirely unknown for employees, or even teams of employees, to hustled crates of good out the side door. Of course, other workers may be aware of the theft, but few will dare come forward and inform their supervisors. However, they do feel cheated as they don’t like the feeling that some are getting away with illegal activity, and workplace morale will often decline.
Then there are those who steal sensitive databases and proprietary information. Some swipe client and customer financial information and then have a ball using the credit cards for their own purchases. Some will create false accounts and then have checks made out payable to fictitious businesses that are ultimately their own. Finally, there are those who will swipe proprietary information and try to sell it to competitors. It was just a few years ago that one fun group tried to sell the Coca Cola formula to Pepsico. Nice move. Pepsico of course, wanting no part of it,turned them in.
This all came to mind when I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the increase in truck hijackings. Hijackings are up some 67%. A good many of the thefts are non-violent, unlike the good old days. The driver goes off to eat or take a shower, and the rig is gone. The thieves steal trucks that are loaded with the kind of goods they can get rid of quickly. Electronics appliances, certain food items,, clothing…any of the stuff that is easy in and easy out.
Naturally, I had to wonder how much of this theft was an inside job. How many times did someone from a warehouse call the thieves and tip them off that a rig loaded with so and so would be running on Interstate 40 with the following licenses plates. Then of course there is the question of the trucker who walks off to take a shower, eat something, taking his time until the thieves make off with his truck. Can he be in on it, and does he also tip the thieves about his load or in some other way serve as an accomplice to the crime? All interesting questions, and I am sure I am not the only one asking them.
Background checks may not prevent hijackings. But background checks may be awfully helpful in weeding out the drivers who are prone to illegal activity. Drivers with criminal records, friends in the wrong place, people who like to steal trucks. Checking out a driver’s criminal records or for that matter his credit reports to see if he is desperate enough to make this kind of move is not such a bad idea.
Most trucking firms we deal with do not conduct background checks. Or, let’s say the conduct the background checks that keep them Department of Transportation or DOT compliant, but not much else. It is understandable. In a tough economy every business is trying to save a couple of bucks.
But the thing is, the bucks you save may prove more costly in the long run. If hijacking trunks is looming as the new national past time, then expanding background checks to include criminal records checks and even credit reports may seem cost effective by comparison to the increase in the insurance rates. At least it is worth thinking about.
Check them out before you hire.
2 replies on “Background Checks to Help Prevent Employee Theft”
Background checks and criminal records checks are a place to start when trying to reduce employee theft, but if they are not done correctly you’re just wasting your money. Hiring the big background mega companies is dangerous do to overseas outsourcing and computer only checks.
You need a trained and licensed private investigator in your state to do your backgrounds. He or she will catch things that computers never will. All states have PI associations and hold their members to a higher standards, so try to hire from an association.
[…] and sens of insecurity in may have created, employee theft is on the rise. My one recent blog, Background Checks to Help Prevent Employee Theft, covered some of this issue. But since then I learned a few things that should cause employers to […]