Continuous Discovery Is An Investment Business Leaders Can No Longer Ignore
If business leaders want to protect their assets, it’s important to look well beyond the pre-hire background check
Posted on 09-27-2019, Read Time: Min
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When it comes to their employees, what business leaders don’t know definitely can hurt them.
Employee theft costs have doubled from 2002 to 2018. American businesses lose $50 billion each year, according to a recent report by The Atlantic. In May 2019, four Amazon employees were charged with stealing $100,000 worth of Apple watches. An Apple employee stole the company’s plans for self-driving cars in early 2019.
Business leaders know they have to hire employees they can trust, demonstrated by the fact that 96% of them run pre-hire background checks. Unfortunately, unhappy employees are grown, not hired. Circumstances change, and seemingly perfect new hires can eventually be driven by circumstances in or out of the workplace to finally commit potentially dangerous and expensive criminal acts.
To protect against this possibility, leaders must go a step further. They can’t just screen employees once a year or once when they’re hired. Instead, transparent, continuous discovery can help spot major problems—or catch small issues before they have a chance to turn into big ones putting the ability to recruit and retain quality employees and customers at risk.
Continuous discovery helps business leaders identify verbal or physical acts that are malicious, negligent or illegal, which likewise helps them keep other employees safe. Some solutions allow leaders to select what specific behaviors they’re alerted to. Behaviors that indicate employees are experiencing stress (particularly financial) are of particular importance.
When employees are stressed, they may act out in ways that put the business at risk. If they encounter unexpected medical expenses and are facing financial hardship, for example, they may be driven to steal something from work that they need at home and don’t feel like spending money on. It could be something as simple as a stapler, an object they doubt people will notice is missing. Then, they may try snagging things that are a little more valuable, like multiple packs of paper, printer ink and other office supplies. From there, the stealing tends to escalate to the point that 33% of all business bankruptcies are caused by employee theft.
Even bigger issues can also be flagged. When it comes to criminal matters that occur outside of the workplace, business leaders who don’t check in on their employees past the pre-hire background check often aren’t made aware when an employee is arrested – often violating existing company policy, regulation and customer conduct requirements. The only way for an employer to find out is if the offense is written about in the newspaper, or if it is a serious offense and the employee is convicted. It’s important to note, however, that depending on the offense, upwards of 6 months can pass between when an employee is arrested and when they go to trial. During that time, the employee – likely stressed given their arrest – could put the company in jeopardy.
This is where continuous discovery and self-reporting become critical. In addition to making business leaders aware of when these events take place, advanced systems also allow employees to self-report offenses – or anonymously report coworkers’ potentially concerning behaviors – they want business leaders to know about, which can potentially help all parties. Continuing with the above mentioned example, if an employee is arrested, they can let their employer know ahead of time about the reason behind their arrest. This allows them to proactively share their side of the story and keeps business leaders from being blindsided, scenarios in which they might take rash and unnecessary action. Considering employers are expected to spend $680 billion on turnover in 2020, it’s critical that employers only make hire and fire decisions when they have all the facts.
Early intervention is essential. With the right information, Human Resources can be engaged to help employees before outside stress turns into bad decisions. Maybe an employee’s tough financial situation results from unforeseen medical expenses or just too much debt. Whatever the case, HR could provide them with counseling and other resources to help tackle their issues, perhaps by connecting them with a financial advisor or helping them create a budget.
All things considered, if business leaders want to protect their assets, they’re going to have to look well beyond the pre-hire background check and see that continuous discovery is the answer. Between its ability to help them prevent financial loss and keep employees from making decisions they’ll regret, continuous discovery is an investment that pays for itself.
Employee theft costs have doubled from 2002 to 2018. American businesses lose $50 billion each year, according to a recent report by The Atlantic. In May 2019, four Amazon employees were charged with stealing $100,000 worth of Apple watches. An Apple employee stole the company’s plans for self-driving cars in early 2019.
Business leaders know they have to hire employees they can trust, demonstrated by the fact that 96% of them run pre-hire background checks. Unfortunately, unhappy employees are grown, not hired. Circumstances change, and seemingly perfect new hires can eventually be driven by circumstances in or out of the workplace to finally commit potentially dangerous and expensive criminal acts.
To protect against this possibility, leaders must go a step further. They can’t just screen employees once a year or once when they’re hired. Instead, transparent, continuous discovery can help spot major problems—or catch small issues before they have a chance to turn into big ones putting the ability to recruit and retain quality employees and customers at risk.
Continuous discovery helps business leaders identify verbal or physical acts that are malicious, negligent or illegal, which likewise helps them keep other employees safe. Some solutions allow leaders to select what specific behaviors they’re alerted to. Behaviors that indicate employees are experiencing stress (particularly financial) are of particular importance.
When employees are stressed, they may act out in ways that put the business at risk. If they encounter unexpected medical expenses and are facing financial hardship, for example, they may be driven to steal something from work that they need at home and don’t feel like spending money on. It could be something as simple as a stapler, an object they doubt people will notice is missing. Then, they may try snagging things that are a little more valuable, like multiple packs of paper, printer ink and other office supplies. From there, the stealing tends to escalate to the point that 33% of all business bankruptcies are caused by employee theft.
Even bigger issues can also be flagged. When it comes to criminal matters that occur outside of the workplace, business leaders who don’t check in on their employees past the pre-hire background check often aren’t made aware when an employee is arrested – often violating existing company policy, regulation and customer conduct requirements. The only way for an employer to find out is if the offense is written about in the newspaper, or if it is a serious offense and the employee is convicted. It’s important to note, however, that depending on the offense, upwards of 6 months can pass between when an employee is arrested and when they go to trial. During that time, the employee – likely stressed given their arrest – could put the company in jeopardy.
This is where continuous discovery and self-reporting become critical. In addition to making business leaders aware of when these events take place, advanced systems also allow employees to self-report offenses – or anonymously report coworkers’ potentially concerning behaviors – they want business leaders to know about, which can potentially help all parties. Continuing with the above mentioned example, if an employee is arrested, they can let their employer know ahead of time about the reason behind their arrest. This allows them to proactively share their side of the story and keeps business leaders from being blindsided, scenarios in which they might take rash and unnecessary action. Considering employers are expected to spend $680 billion on turnover in 2020, it’s critical that employers only make hire and fire decisions when they have all the facts.
Early intervention is essential. With the right information, Human Resources can be engaged to help employees before outside stress turns into bad decisions. Maybe an employee’s tough financial situation results from unforeseen medical expenses or just too much debt. Whatever the case, HR could provide them with counseling and other resources to help tackle their issues, perhaps by connecting them with a financial advisor or helping them create a budget.
All things considered, if business leaders want to protect their assets, they’re going to have to look well beyond the pre-hire background check and see that continuous discovery is the answer. Between its ability to help them prevent financial loss and keep employees from making decisions they’ll regret, continuous discovery is an investment that pays for itself.
Author Bio
| Tom Miller is the CEO of ClearForce. Connect Tom Miller Follow @ClearForce2 |
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