Employees will steal from you. This is no secret. Some employees will steal the small stuff like pens and paper. Others will steal the more important things, like proprietary information and sensitive databases. These are the things that can be embarrassing and costly, if stolen.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, a security guard was in cahoots with robbers who attacked the armored van on three different occasions. On two occasions, the robber were unsuccessful, but the third time they made off with $170,000. The ssecurity guard was part of the scheme, rendering what one defense attorney referred to as a “stupid and absurd robbery attempt” operation an inside job. The security guard supplied the robbers with the schedule, the routes, and the amount of cash the van would be carrying.
Apparently, there was some comedy to the stupidity and the clumsiness of the robbers in this case. But inother cases, less dramatic cases, when your employee makes off with sensitive databases or proprietary information, or company cash, it is hardly a laughing matter. Losses can be grievous as evidence by different instances where employees set themselves up as shell corporations and siphoned off millions of dollars.
The best way to help prevent employee theft is by conducting thorough and vigorous background checks. Not just criminal records, but other background searches, like the Motor Vehicle Records Search, or MVR, and Credit Reports, which will help you reveal personal character and behavioral characteristics. In this terrible economy, especially, employees in trouble with creditors are more prone to make desperate moves. People who normally wouldn’t steal make be tempted. Conducting MVR’s and credit reports in addition to criminal records searches go a long way in determining character, in telling an employer what kind of straits they job candidate is in.
In an economic downturn, job applicants may be indulging in substance abuse, and a drug test or the MVR records for Driving While Intoxicated will provide an indication. Then there is the issue of credit, replete with foreclosures, past due accounts, closed accounts, and account put into collections. the credit report will help determine whether if you hire an employment candidate whether you must consider creditors garnishing his wages. This means extra paperwork for you.
And then there is the matter of theft. No employer needs it. Now now, especially, when every business is struggling to stay afloat and needs every dollar it has. So check them oiut before you hire.
