The nation was rocked once again by the news of yet another mass shooting in San Jose, California. The San Jose shooting is now being described by law enforcement officials as the actions of a disgruntled employee in an act of violence perpetrated against his coworkers. Samuel Cassidy, 57, entered his worksite, a rail facility for the Valley Transportation Authority at 6:30 in the morning with a duffle bag full of semi-automatic firearms with high-capacity magazines. Cassidy shot and killed 9 people who left behind families and loved ones in the aftermath of another tragedy in what has become a devastating state of normalcy.
Because there were no surveillance cameras in the rail yard, investigators have relied on witness testimony to fill in the blanks. Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith told the media that the San Jose shooting had the earmarks of serious premeditation, “ It appears to us at this point that he said to one of the people there, ‘I’m not going to shoot you.’ And then he shot other people. So, I imagine there was some kind of though on who he wanted to shoot.”
Possible motives for the San Jose shooting have only begun to emerge in the days following the violence. Cecilia Nelms, Cassidy’s ex-wife, told the Associated Press that Cassidy had ideations of homicidal violence against his coworkers as far back as 2012, when she recalled him saying he wanted to kill people at work. “I never believed him, and it never happened. Until now.” Nelms went on to state that Cassidy frequently expressed frustration or anger regarding his treatment at work, complaining of “unfair assignments.” The investigation into the San Jose shooting is still ongoing as law enforcement continue to piece together the pieces that lead to this violence. All the while, the families of the nine victims are left reeling, demanding answers as to how this could have been prevented.
As instances of mass shootings in the workplace continue to grow as a trending form of violence, employers and business owners continue to seek solutions to prevent it. While bolstering a workplace or worksite’s physical security measures are certainly a great way to protect employees, it can only go so far, as seen in the case of the San Jose shooting. The Valley Transportation Authority’s railyard was outdoors, and there are limits to how many checkpoints can be monitored and secured. Though security measure provide peace of mind, they cannot mitigate the systemic problems that toxic work environments cause. No evidence has emerged that the Valley Transportation Authority was a toxic employer, but the same cannot be said of all employers that have experienced mass shootings in their workplace. Toxic corporate cultures can potentially warp an employee into the sort who would open fire on his coworkers, and that’s why employers are more interested than ever in improving that culture.
Regardless of the motive for his deplorable actions, nothing would justify the senseless taking of nine lives and losses felt by hundreds more. The victims were Alex Ward Fritch, 49; Paul Delacruz Megia, 42; Taptejdeep Singh, 36; Adrian Balleza, 29; Jose Dejesus Hernandez, 35; Timothy Michael Romo, 49; Michael Joseph Rudometkin, 40; Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, 63, and Lars Kepler Lane, 63.
Does your company need to improve online reputation? Are negative reviews popping up over and over again on employment review sites? Are employees routinely making negative posts about their job with your corporation? Answers to these questions in the affirmative could be indicative that your business needs some online reputation management services to improve your image and your relationship with your employees for a happier and healthier workplace.
We already know that corporate culture moves in a cycle—in which those in leadership have the power and ability to invest in the health and happiness of their employees so that they can be more engaged in their work. When corporate culture is poor, the ripple effects throughout a company can be devastating. Pervasive patterns of low employee morale can spread like a disease and cause a significant portion of the workplace to disengage from their duties and drive down the company’s bottom line. Low morale can be caused by things like failure to address persistent problems within daily operations, poor working conditions, or refusal to remove toxic employees from day-to-day life. Whatever the cause, that low morale not only rots your business from within, but can also seep into the nooks and crannies of your marketing campaign in ways you may have never expected.
Reputation management used to be just about television, radio, and print media, but now the rise of the internet and social media has forced employers to rethink how these outlets may impact their business. Social media is used by individuals to stay in touch with others and to cultivate the personality they wish to portray online. Corporations can use these platforms in the same way to maintain contact with their customer base, as well as garner exposure from new users. In this way, they can build rapport with their customer base and inspire confidence in their products or services.
Negative posts from employees can also reflect poorly on your business’s online reputation. Employees who post on their social media about negative experiences they’ve had with their employers have the potential to go viral depending on the content, and soon the entire internet is chatting about it. Sites like Glassdoor make it possible for current and former employees to share their experiences with the company as an employer. These sites also create a greater degree of transparency regarding a company’s purported vision and how their corporate culture reflects those values. Negative posts on sites like these can fully deter prospective employees from applying for a position with that company, which is why leadership must be vigilant in monitoring these sites.
How can a corporate undercover investigation improve your workplace?
When it comes to your business, you don’t know what you don’t know. 75% of employees have admitted to stealing from their employer at least once, and 35% will steal at least twice. That’s to say nothing of misappropriation funds, theft of industry secrets, and various forms of fraud. Many employers do their best to foster a positive corporate culture landscape in which they can thrive. When employers do not engage in the health and happiness of their employees, they can fully expect a corporate crisis to arise as a direct or indirect result. Issues such as internal theft, workers’ compensation fraud, harassment, and discrimination are just some of the corporate crises that arise from the lack of oversight on part of leadership. However, once these problems develop, it can be difficult to document them in an overt investigation. This is where a corporate undercover investigation can provide the crucial clarity needed to preserve a corporation’s mission.
Today’s corporate landscape is fast-paced and constantly in flux, but leadership must find time and budget to have their daily operations properly assessed. In order to conduct a successful corporate undercover investigation, leadership and human resources must first know when it’s time to hire an investigator, and what criteria to use when hiring them. Many executives and CEOs may not wait for a corporate crisis to occur, but rather invest in a corporate undercover investigation for auditing purposes. The average time it takes for frauds to be discovered is 2 years, and when the fraud is allowed to continue for 5 years or more, the financial losses can surpass $2 million. It’s not hard to understand why employers and human resource departments alike may wish to be more proactive when it comes to protecting the business and its assets from the ruins of corporate crisis.
In a corporate undercover investigation, investigators will insert themselves into the workplace or worksite, typically in a capacity where they will be easily ignored, such as custodial staff, messengers, or even security. By inconspicuously infiltrating the workplace, investigators can observe daily operations without disrupting the true nature of the corporate culture. They can document the unseen factors in any corporate crisis. Whether it’s as small as thefts from office supply closet, or major theft of product from a warehouse, investigators can place covert surveillance cameras in strategic locations to capture the theft on tape. The best and most seasoned investigators will have the ability to seamlessly enter the workplace and develop a rapport with employees. This allows them to break down the unseen interpersonal factors in the staff, develop leads, and get corroboration regarding aspects of the case. Corporate undercover investigations can also be the ideal way to handle high-stakes corporate crises in which upper management is suspected to be involved. The more elevated the position, the more devastating the impact of that employees misconduct will be. At the conclusion of the investigation, investigators prepare a complete report of all their findings and return it to the client in order to ensure they have the full scope of the problems within their organization.
If you have need of a corporate undercover investigation, call Lauth Investigations International today at 317-951-1100 for a free consultation on all of our corporate investigation services. We are staffed by former military and law enforcement and carry a glowing A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. Get the clarity your company needs today with Lauth. Call today or visit us online.
Corporations in 2021 cannot afford to shirk the exposure and customer relations benefits of the internet and social media. A social media presence allows a corporation to cultivate a personality with their customer base through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and now TikTok. While Facebook itself has options for buying adspace to users, most platforms have the inherent value of free advertising, provided the corporation is able to build a following and maintain a visible presence. Social media itself opened up new opportunities for jobs in IT and social media management. However, the same level of access that allows companies to maintain daily contact with their customers can also ruin a company in a matter of weeks, and yet, the urgency to monitor these online metrics is lukewarm. 96% of businesses believe brand and reputation can affect revenue, yet only 44% monitor that impact. (CareerArc)
Prior to the new millennium, reputation management services for corporations used to be restricted to press coverage in analog newspapers and exposure through television and radio. Now in the age of the internet, the annals through which a company can be maligned have expanded exponentially. 69% of jobseekers would turn down an offer from a company with reputation problems (StatusLabs)
Through the years, Americans have seen bad actions on a company’s website or social media pages completely tank a company’s reputation, impact stock prices, and lead to sharp declines in profits within a single quarter. With billions of users on Facebook, international companies in particular are at risk of having their entire brand tainted by a mere tweet containing less than 140 characters.
Building a glowing reputation online may seem like a shallow solution to a large issue, but the ubiquity of the internet and social media has completely changed how corporations relate to their customer base. Here’s why online reputation management matters:
Online reputations can build consumer bases through integrity, transparency, and direct communication among customers, employees, investors, and the new industry of brand influencers that have developed over the last 10 years. Consumers are willing to pay more for a product if the company selling it has a good reputation. (University of Technology Sydney)
An online reputation allows a company to meticulously cultivate and maintain an image by engaging on social media. Consumer bases can be updated regularly on products and services, as well as deals on products and sale opportunities.
Draws in top-tier talent and interest from individuals who wish to work for the company, which can keep hiring costs down, and avoid a cyclical pattern of turnover that drags down the corporation’s bottom line.
Online reputations can drive sales and improve quarterly reports. By the same token, a negative online reputation can lay waste to a corporation that has previously maintained excellent consumer relations.
No online presence is a missed opportunity—but a negative online presence is a malignancy within a corporation that has the potential to rot it from within. Therefore, executives, managers, and employees alike must always be looking for opportunities to build a positive online presence. Before leadership sets out to hire a reputation management firm, there are internal measures they can take first:
Improve content marketing
Invest in customer experience
Invest in employee satisfaction
Swiftly and comprehensively address internal issues
Maintain a strict level of integrity
Online presence
Social media: A company’s social media presence must be carefully cultivated and maintained in alignment with the corporation’s mission and values.
Social media in the workplace: The social media of all persons who officially represent the company must be devoid of any disparaging posts regarding their employer.
Review sites: When exaggerated or fraudulent reviews of a company appear on one of the many review sites associated with a company’s culture and products, it can drag down the overall rating of a business, and create false impressions regarding the quality of their services. One bad review can cost you up to 22% of potential customers. The risk increases to 59.2% for three bad reviews. Four or more negative posts drive this number to 70%. (Moz)
When internal measures do not pull a corporation out of the hole created by a negative online reputation, it might be time to consider hiring a reputation management services firm. These firms can evaluate the level of damage inflicted by the negative reputation, and develop multi-pronged approaches to remedying those factors. This includes brand revitalization, social media cleanups, and white hat tactics to get negative reviews removed from a corporation’s social media and review pages. If you have need of reputation management services, please consider Lauth Investigation’s International. We have more than 20 years’ experience in managing corporate crises, and can work with clients to develop comprehensive solutions to rebuild their reputation. We are staffed by former military and law enforcement and carry a glowing A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. Call 317-951-1100 today or find us online at www.lauthinveststg.wpengine.com.
In the interest of due-diligence with an internal investigation, thousands of documents must be reviewed, processed, and itemized. Internal processes must be reviewed and evaluated by an internal investigator. It may be necessary to interview employees regarding their knowledge of the matter—those accounts must be cataloged, transcribed, and placed in context within the investigation. In addition to the tangible resources that are expended during the investigation, there’s hundreds of hours of labor hours that must be invoiced and paid out. The Fulbright Litigation Trends Survey presented data that indicated internal investigation costs were already on the rise back in 2011. Excluding the cost of settlements and judgements, they reported a median spend with American corporations of $1.4 million. Almost a quarter of those businesses reporting spent an excess of $5 million or more regarding internal complaints. For large companies with a wealth of resources, $5 million may seem like a drop in the bucket, but there are many smaller businesses who could easily be bankrupted by such a price tag. Those same companies also do not have the budget to maintain a specialized internal investigations team to address internal complaints when they arise.
There is a wide variety of events that could trigger a corporate investigation. Perhaps an employee files a sexual harassment complaint against another. Perhaps a whistleblower brings attention to a pervasive internal problem. Whatever the cause, it’s up to leadership within the corporation or organization to ensure that the problem is addressed. While some entities have the budget for an internal investigation team, the investigation itself still places a strain on a business and its resources.
Private investigators are the perfect professionals to conduct your corporation’s culture audit for a number of reasons. Just to name a few, private investigators have similar skill sets to investigators who work in risk assessment, can conduct internal investigations without disruption, and can offer you a more customizable program that will fit your business.
Private investigators build successful practices because
they have a detailed eye for human behavior. When it comes to private
investigation, it’s not always just about what a subject is doing, but also why
they’re doing it. Because they have a wealth of experience in rationalizing and
predicting human behavior, private investigators might have an edge over
traditional corporate culture audits performed by risk assessment investigators.
What we know about the cycle of corporate culture indicates that there is a
cause/effect relationship between an employee’s level of engagement and how
successful the company or organization is in their internal operations. We also
know that an organization’s structure can directly affect how engaged employees
are. This is why private investigators are so invaluable. They can look at
characteristics of the workforce on paper and in real life to assess how
employees feed into the current cycle of corporate culture.
Risk assessment firms specialize in internal investigation,
but too often, leadership will neglect undergoing an audit because they believe
that it will be too much a daily disruption to internal operations. By virtue
of their profession, private investigators excel at blending in to their
environment, whether it’s in a busy street, or a quiet library. Whatever the
nature of their investigation, private investigators know how to conduct their
due-diligence without drawing attention to themselves or others. This skillset
is especially valuable if leadership wishes to conduct a covert internal
investigation. After all, people behave the most naturally when they believe they
aren’t being watched. In this way, private investigators can infiltrate businesses
and obtain necessary information without piquing the curiosity or suspicion of
current employees.
Another hallmark of a private investigation’s profession is their flexibility and autonomy. Sometimes private investigators can very quickly pick up leads that other investigators cannot because they have autonomy other types of investigators do not. This flexibility gives private investigators the ability to customize any corporate culture audit program to fit your business’s needs. Some companies may be small, but do not have the traditional structure of a brick-and-mortar business. Other companies might be large, but have a workforce where millennials dominate the majority. This is where a private investigator’s diverse experience can allow them to identify the problems and prioritize the most prevalent problems to right the ship of corporate culture.
If your business or organization needs a corporate culture
audit, call Lauth Investigations International today for a free quote on our
corporate culture audit program. We have an A+ rating with the Better Business
Bureau, 5-star ratings with Google, and we are staffed by former military and
law enforcement personnel. Call 317-951-1100, or find us online at www.lauthinveststg.wpengine.com
