Pre Employment Criminal Background Checks is the Only Way to Prevent Employee Theft

Pre Employment Criminal Background Checks is the Only
Way to Prevent Employee Theft!
The fraud by Tyco and Enron executives made news headlines around the
world. But beneath these extreme cases lie a number of smal er incidents that
amount to a very large problem for organizations. The billions of dollars lost
each year due to employee theft and fraud affecting both small and large
organizations alike.
Many of the other entries have indirectly touched on this problem and
suggested solutions to it. But this piece of writing will not only discuss about
different aspects of employee theft but also give a solution to a problem
through pre employment criminal background checks in a way that the problem
cannot head-up again.
Recent surveys indicate that employee theft is the fastest growing crime in the
United Stated. Companies have lost over 50 billion dol ars annual y as their
employees caught stealing Time, Money and Supplies as wel .
A recent example quoted a by a newspaper, is about an English employer who
have figured out an employee thieve and tries to punish him in his own way but
his own sleeves caught fire when the same employee sued him for hell stake of
a money. First, have a look at the story then I wil let you know the reason
behind it.
"A business owner/employer in England found that one of his trusted
employees wrote a company check to himself for 845 ($1,375.66 US) and then
cashed it.
The employer gets enraged and decided to practice a bit of street justice. So he
placed a sign -- which read "Thief. I stole 845. Am On My Way to Police
Station" -- around the thieving staffers' neck and marched him through town
before eventual y handing him over to the police.

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But police relieved the thief off with just a warning, and then he sued his boss
for humiliation, false imprisonment and lost wages. In the end, the business
owner was forced to settle the lawsuit for 13,000 ($21,164)".
So the story tells us about, handling employee theft cases by you own way is
just not the way to precede. Employee theft is a not a small issue, any employer
needs to plan a proper program to overcome that problem and prevent
themselves from a business/financial loss.
The only way out is to make correct and wise hiring decisions and bonding
hiring process with strong pre employment criminal background checks, credit
history checks, and past employment checks.
Although it can be tough to pin point an employee theft, but some telltale signs
of thieve employees may include; unusual behavior, such as defensiveness,
irritability and suspiciousness, missing documents, frequently used names and
addresses for refunds, unbalanced ledgers, inventory shortages, and
merchandise frequently shipped to P.O. Box numbers.
But the first and foremost line of defense against employee theft, fraud and
embezzlement is to adopt strict pre employment criminal background checks
and credit history background checks before hiring anyone into the
organization.
8 Tips to prevent Employee Theft, Fraud and Embezzlement:
1. Pre employment Criminal background checks: Consider background
checks as the first step of hiring the job applicants. Background checks
should be performed and should include a check on criminal history, civil
history, driver license violations, as well as verification of education, past
employment (including reasons for leaving), and references. Third party
background checks companies are very reliable in detecting a criminal.
2. Credit History Background Checks: Credit history background checks are
considered a must now days. As many potential employees have bad

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credit histories and they can be identified on throat. Credit background
check on prospective employees, as people with financial difficulties are
more prone to fraud. In order to do this, you are legally required to notify
the job applicant in writing that a credit report may be requested. You
also need to receive the applicant's written consent.
3. Zero Tolerance: Let your employees know that your company has zero
tolerance for employee theft. This includes not only outright stealing, but
also things such as taking a long lunch break without approval, wrong
usage of sick leave when not sick, working slow or sloppy, or coming late
or leaving early.
4. Amplify Your Company Policy: Write and distribute a company policy that
outlines exactly what constitutes stealing. Contact your local police
department if you do discover an incident of employee theft so you send
a message to your employees that stealing will not be tolerated.
5. Be a Role Model for Your Employees: Business owners and senior
management must themselves be role models of honesty and integrity, or
they may risk setting up a work environment that justifies il egal and
criminal activity.
6. Separation of duties is important: Avoid at al costs allowing the finances
of a business to be handled and control ed by a single individual. No
employee should be responsible for both recording and processing a
transaction.
7. Run surprise audits and criminal activity background checks: Third party
investigations are essential once a year. Also insist that your bookkeeper
or any employee who has access to monies take a yearly vacation so you
can examine their records.
8. Use Customer Complaints identify Employee Theft: Personal y look into
customer complaints that they have not received credit for payments.

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Concluding Remarks:
Pre employment criminal background checks are extremely helpful in reducing
employee theft and embezzlement. Now that more and more employers have
realized that theft, fraud and embezzlement can happen to them and it's
prevalent in all type of organizations and positions, background checks on
prospective employees have become increasingly popular over the last few year.
Secondly, background checks may limit an employer's liability arising from
claims of negligent hiring. As an employer, you have legal duty to provide a
safe working environment for al the employees. Accordingly, investigating the
background of employees helps satisfy a legal duty also.
Final y, pre employment criminal background checks are the source of
decreasing the likelihood of discipline-related problems at the office, as well as
workplace violence.

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