Whether you own a business or manage a nonprofit organization, one of the inalienable truths about both is that you need good people to be successful. Good help can be hard to find, but not if you have the correct procedures in place with regards to hiring and promotion. That means implementing comprehensive background checks and exercising due-diligence in confirming the facts. However, many businesses and nonprofits find that they are ill-equipped to conduct thorough background checks in addition to managing their day-to-day operations. That’s why many in leadership are looking to outsource background check procedures to third-party companies.
When it comes to handling background investigations internally, the most important thing to remember is that they are internal. This can become a problem in a situation where a current employee is being promoted from within. The internal investigator who is conducting the background investigation may have a personal relationship with the candidate, which can muddle the integrity of the investigation. That’s why when businesses outsource background check investigations, they can count on integrity to be a tenant of that investigation. This way the investigation can avoid any conflict of interest.
When you outsource background check operations to a third-party firm, you also get the expertise that’s necessary to get comprehensive, clarified intelligence. Internal employees who’ve been tasked with conducting background checks may lack the required insight to properly contextualize items of interest. For instance, some employers look at a long address history on a candidate’s background check as a sign of transience and a lack of ability to make a serious commitment. However, a professional like a private investigator would look at all aspects of the background check for proper context—like a history of house-flipping for profit that would require a new address after completing each project. This crucial context prevents that candidate from being disqualified in the first round of due-diligence in hiring processes, and the company would not miss out on an opportunity in a new employee.
Background checks, when executed correctly, take a great deal of time. All of the facts must be cross-referenced for confirmation, facts must be properly contextualized, and it may become necessary to contact subjects of interest on the background check in order to exercise the proper due-diligence. This can further exacerbate the disruptions that the hiring process brings to daily operations. With disruption comes loss of profit and frustration for the internal team. Making the decision to outsource background check operations can ensure that the day-to-day of a company or non-profit is not interrupted to their detriment, while maintaining the integrity and clarity necessary.
If you need comprehensive background check services for your corporation or nonprofit, call Lauth Investigations International today at 317-951-1100, or visit us online at www.lauthinveststg.wpengine.com
Imagine the scenario: an employee comes to you and alleges that a pillar member of your leadership team has repeatedly addressed them using racial slurs. Or perhaps, a low level manager expresses concern that they have been repeatedly overlooked for promotion because of their sexual orientation or identity. What do you do? You launch a discrimination investigation.
As an employer, you have a legal obligation to nurture an environment that is free of discrimination’s many ugly faces. So, in these instances, the only correct course of action is to launch a workplace discrimination investigation.
Discrimination can manifest in many ways: hiring, firing, and promotion decisions; the withholding of raises, perks, or bonuses; verbal abuse or microaggressions; or the forging of a biased or bullying atmosphere. Ultimately, whenever mistreatment in the workplace is driven by bias towards a personal characteristic or status—be it sexual orientation, age, disability, race, or others—it likely falls under the umbrella of anti-discrimination laws. This means that your duty to launch a corporate investigation is triggered, and now is the moment for action.
Knowing What to Do In the Face of a Workplace Discrimination Complaint
There’s no doubt that a swift response is required in the face of a workplace discrimination complaint, but so too is caution. Failure to act leaves the door open to a human rights complaint or civil suit from the victim, but acting over-zealously opens a neighboring door to the same actions from the accused. The place to start is in turning to your own HR policies, which should always be clearly outlined, up to date, and well communicated.
Historically, courts have considered employees bound by their written policies, so digression is a dangerous game. From there, the best investigative strategy can be identified—informed by the knowledge that discrimination can be nuanced and multi-faceted, making it harder to evidence and document. Keeping discrimination investigations in-house can be another risky route, as it makes way for accusations of bias. In many instances, turning to a trusted and impartial corporate investigations service can be the most sturdy and cost-effective course of action.
The Benefit of Having a Corporate Investigations Specialist in Your Corner
Whenever a distressing accusation emerges within a workplace, fast resolution and damage-control are always going to be on everyone’s minds—whether that means concluding with termination or not, a discrimination investigation is vital. While closing the case file may seem tempting and within reach, all workplace discrimination investigations should be mounted with the potential for litigation in mind. A court may look unfavorably on investigations conducted by those who are under-trained or inexperienced, while inadequately documented efforts may topple even the most ethically conducted corporate investigation.
A private investigator who is well seasoned within the corporate world will offer expert support in conducting interviews, navigating confidentiality, communicating with lawyers, and weighing mitigating factors from a legal standpoint. They will also have complete and comprehensive knowledge of state-relevant legal obligations and how to form a case-file that is ready for scrutiny—as well as being able to step in as an expert witness should the need arise. Of course, the role of corporate investigations services need not begin there, but can actually serve at the prevention stage, safeguarding organizations against peril of considerable losses.
A Corporate Culture Audit Provides Armour Against Workplace Discrimination
One of the best resources in the corporate culture toolkit when it comes to tackling workplace discrimination is to stop a hostile work environment from reaching boiling point—and ideally even prevent it from forming in the first place. In this endeavor, a corporate culture audit serves as a health check for workplace prosperity. This proactive form of corporate investigation lets you know if your organization is working as a well-oiled machine, or if a variety or opportunities for improvement have been going undetected—gradually eroding employee wellbeing, performance, and trust. The dedicated corporate investigations team at Lauth Investigations is here to serve you, so learn more about the role we can play in bringing your workplace discrimination investigations to successful resolution, as well as the transformative powers of our innovative Corporate Culture Audits. Alternatively, contact the team today to discuss your unique needs in detail, and receive a free no-obligation quote.
You’ve just pulled the trigger on hiring a bright and bold new employee, and you couldn’t be more excited. On paper, they are everything that your organization’s been looking for—and the decision to welcome them into your team comes with an implicit trust and vulnerability. So it can be difficult to imagine that such a candidate would engage in employee theft, but it is never out of the question.
At times, that faith can be bountifully rewarded, but at others, it can be met with deception and disappointment. This might be a cruel twist of fate, but it could be a correctable omission in your policies and procedures. Either way, what do you do next?
The dedicated corporate investigations team here at Lauth Investigations make it a number-one priority to help businesses like yours to minimize the risk of crises triggered by employee theft or fraud—or navigate such unwelcome occurrences with swift and decisive action, for optimal results. Read on to learn more about how to kick a laser-sharp corporate investigation into action, and the rewards to be found in harnessing preventative corporate culture audits.
Most Companies are Naive When it Comes to Employee Theft and Corporate Fraud
How common do you think workplace theft might be? Could the guilty among the workforce be 1 in 100, or perhaps 1 in 10? Shockingly to some, research reveals that roughly 75% of employees have stolen at least once over the course of their careers, resulting in a staggering $50 billion in losses absorbed by American businesses every year. While a visionary employer certainly shouldn’t allow such numbers to make them jaded at the cost of innovation, whenever suspicion arises, effective corporate investigations should certainly follow!
One of the other pitfalls that can often be correlated with misconceptions about corporate fraud, workplace theft, and even corporate data theft, is a hole in company policies. Each and every organization should have clear and calibrated policies in place that serve as a road map for handling these issues. The absence of such policies—or deviation away from them—can be detrimental should civil or criminal litigation be on the cards. If in doubt, turning to an expert corporate investigations specialist can ensure the best possible trajectory forwards, whether crisis has already arrived or not.
The Advantage of Assigning an External Corporate Investigator
Above all else, the goal of the dedicated corporate investigations specialist is to protect the resources and reputation of the company they serve. While this may be an appealing proposition, many employers still wonder if they can get away with conducting theft or fraud related corporate investigations in-house.
While this can be an effective option, internal theft and fraud investigations do come with some degree of inherent risk. The act of one colleague investigation another can leave a company open to accusations of bias or a cover-up. Meanwhile, the employee burdened with the responsibility it drawn away from their usual tasks—leaving either their professional role or the investigation to suffer. Finally, poorly conducted investigations can become a legal minefield if a neat conclusion is not forthcoming.
Following every lead to uncover and act upon suspected crimes in the workplace should be an unwaveringly thorough process. If not, the consequences can be far reaching, which is why a seasoned private investigator can be the ultimate ally. Gathering evidence, conducting interviews, liaising with authorities, and tracing assets are all part of the job—and these diligent, impartial, and fast moving investigations allow companies to get back to doing their best work at the first possible opportunity.
Revealing Pervasive Patterns and Turning the Corner Away From Employee Theft and Fraud
When all signs point to a crime being committed, a laser-focused corporate investigation is the appropriate course of action. However, what is the right path when managers or CEOs have a niggling sense that something isn’t right, suspect widespread misbehavior, or feel that the company is inexplicably underperforming?
In these moments, a comprehensive corporate culture audit is an excellent undertaking—akin to a health-check for your business. This particular arm of corporate investigations services offers preventative momentum, the chance to gain a clear picture of a broad array of potential hidden issues, and a plan that is ready to correct them. If you suspect that corporate theft or fraud is occurring on your watch, reach out to the Lauth Investigations team for friendly and definitive advice on the options that lay before you. Learn more about our expertise in the field of corporate investigations, and about the transformational power provided by corporate culture audits. Alternatively, contact us today for confidential guidance on your unique situation, and to receive a no-obligation quote.
The inundation of phone calls from scammers, phishers, or “bots” as we’ve come to know them is a regular part of life for those with cell phones. For many of us, it’s simply a matter of blocking the call or taking some additional measures to mitigate the deluge. However, for more vulnerable members of our families, like minor children, the elderly, or the infirm, these calls can represent a credible threat. We’re here to pass along some tips from the Federal Trade Commission on how we can protect our families from these phone scams.
In 2019, it was estimated that a total of $10.5 billion dollars were lost to phone scammer calls. Such a figure in itself is enough to make your head spin when you consider how much good that sort of money could do. Phone scammers have used a myriad of schemes and disguises in order to defraud citizens and corporations alike out of their hard-earned money. Phone scammers may masquerade as a major company with whom you likely have an account, like Amazon, or be fronting as someone working with a nonprofit. However, the 2020 pandemic was the gasoline that caused that figure to almost double—with a total of $19.7 billion dollars lost to phone scams in 2020. The element of the pandemic allowed phone scammers to capitalize on victims’ fear of dangers associated with the coronavirus. Now, even as pandemic restrictions relax, multiple reports are projecting that anywhere between $29.8 and $53.4 billion in total losses. Here are ways the FTC has recommended to curb these phone scams:
Call Blocking:
Most cell phones, landlines, and internet phone services now come equipped either with call-blocking capabilities, or have apps available that help users reduce the amount of phone scams their number receives. Call-screening is also recommended when a user does not recognize the phone number, as picking up the phone for a phone scammer may be just enough to alert the scammer that this is an active number and a viable target is waiting on the other end.
National Do Not Call Registry:
For some families, the National Do Not Call Registry is a viable option to prevent their loved ones from receiving calls from legitimate companies. However, this option does inherently protect the user from phone scammer calls. In the same vein, do not press any buttons if you happen to pick up a robo call or phone scam call, because that could lead to more phone calls.
Talk About It
Talk to your loved ones about the dangers of robo calls or phone scams. Impart on them the importance of being vigilant and suspicious of unsolicited phone calls. Ensure that before they hand over any personal and/or financial information to double check the source of the call with a trusted family member or loved one.
Most importantly, family and caretakers must know when it is time to take action and report identity theft. If you find out a person who has been in your care has been the victim of a phone scam, go to IdentityTheft.gov to report the scam and find out the next steps.
95% of all businesses have experienced employee theft at some point or another, so when the odd thing goes missing, that’s just a normal day at the office, right? It might not seem like a big deal when a pile of Post-Its or some break room supplies drift away, but small-scale theft can be a canary-esque warning that something far worse is brewing. If workplace culture turns sour and a breeding ground for theft emerges, your losses might remain petty—but they might extend into embezzlement or corporate data theft, so consider those small losses a cue to sit up and get your eye on the ball.
Corporate theft is a spectrum that spans everything between pocketing a pen from the supply closet, through to some of the most nefarious forms of white collar crime. Leadership uncovering a misdeed at any point on this sliding scale can easily dismiss it as an isolated incident, but will theft truly be nipped in the bud through a single disciplinary action or termination? More importantly, what else could these incidences be warning of?
When disappearances or losses are repeating like an unwelcome re-run that should have long been off the air, there’s a good chance that the problem has entered into pervasive territory and is already denting your bottom line. In these moment, turning to a trusted corporate investigations bureau skilled in addressing these kinds of issues is likely going to be your best defense against accelerating future losses.
What Makes Employees Decide to Steal in the First Place?
An employee on the take may simply be a lone bad apple, but it’s worth stepping back and looking at the larger picture after concluding your corporate internal investigations. Perhaps surprisingly, the most common motivations driving corporate theft don’t include the desire to be a criminal mastermind!
Instead, employees might feel as if their employer has wronged them, or that they are not adequately appreciated or compensated for their efforts. They might imagine that their crime is victimless either because it is small, or because the business is insured against theft. Finally, they might have found themselves within an environment where nobody is held accountable for their actions—letting them know not only that they wont be either, but that taking a moral stance within a toxic workplace might just be a waste of their time.
Each and every one of these drivers for employee theft can be traced back to an erosion of corporate culture. When corporate culture is strong, employees feel valued and find satisfaction in succeeding. This forges positive feedback that propels the whole team forwards. So, how can you tell if your corporate culture is in trouble?
What Does Healthy Corporate Culture Look Like?
A good place to start is in understanding what prospering corporate culture is supposed to look like. Healthy workplace culture can be thought of as a cycle—a beloved and welcome rerun in this case—that begins with happy employees. When your team at large are thriving, they will be more engaged, creative, and productive in their daily working lives. Of course, this bountiful reality is the perfect incentive for leadership to continue to invest in their team, delivering rewards such as pay-raises, opportunities, benefits, and praise.
These indicators tell employees that their work is being valued, which boosts their happiness further—and so the cycle continues. Not only can this positive feedback loop allow a business to storm through successive growth, but it can also create a culture of resilience and trust that allows riding out the storm whenever an economic downturn or industry challenge creates bumps in the road. If your efforts to kick-start this kind of triumphant working environment have fallen flat to date, then a corporate culture audit is going to bring whatever is letting you down into focus.
The Risk of Letting Employee Theft and Poor Corporate Culture Slide
If corporate theft is the canary warning of a corporate culture crisis in the coal mine, then what can go wrong if you don’t take action? Sadly, the manifestation of these kinds of pervasive problems can extend far beyond having to buy your stationary twice over. Undervalued employees will not only underperform themselves, but they will inevitably contribute negatively to the engagement of others.
Time theft might be the next impact, as breaks become extended or multiplied, followed potentially by FMLA or compensation fraud. Fundamentally, reoccurring instances of employee theft aren’t something you can afford to ignore. When we consider that 33% of corporate bankruptcies in the US are linked to employee theft, it becomes clear that proactivity is the best approach to keeping corporate theft down, and corporate culture riding high.
How a Corporate Culture Audit Can Help
Trying to assess corporate culture problems from within can be a little bit like trying to see the wood for the trees. Those who are engaging in employee theft will likely be protecting their actions from your eyes, and other employees may feel conflicted by a sense of loyalty to their co-workers, or a shared sense of frustration with their employer. Rather than spiraling through increasingly heavy-handed corporate internal investigations, bringing in expert private investigators to conduct a corporate culture audit can be the most effective way to break a bad pattern of employee theft, misconduct, and underperformance.
A corporate culture audit can be seen as the equivalent to going to the doctors for a thorough checkup. All areas are evaluated for signs of illness, so that causes can be addressed—and not just symptoms. When corporate investigators carry out an objective and independent audit on your behalf, their comprehensive approach will take in everything from internal operations to your hiring processes, and from spanner-in-the-works employees through to leadership unknowingly taking a damaging approach. Not only will they provide an in-depth report on the current corporate culture landscape of your business, but also a clear road map for resolution and ultimately prosperity. If you think your business or organization would benefit from a corporate culture audit, get in touch with Lauth Investigations International today. Going far beyond assisting in corporate theft cases, for over 30 years Lauth has been providing corporations with proactive solutions to stimulate real success. We are always here to answer your questions and provide a free no-obligation quote.
