We all like to think that we’re a good judge of character, but when it comes to choosing who to trust with your company’s inventory, intellectual property, and assets, it is always wise to defer to the facts. Today, we live in a world where 90% of all significant thefts from businesses are internal, and almost a third of businesses bankruptcies are triggered by the very same issue. This makes lifting the curtain on your next applicant’s true credentials key to stopping internal theft.
Yes, in such troubled times, it is high-risk behavior to assume that every resume is honest or that every employee is as clean and crease-free as their pressed work attire. Instead, the best tactic is to up your background-check-game and ensure that you catch any and all rotten candidates before they step into the first day of onboarding. For that, you’ll need the right collaborator, so let’s explore what makes some background checks more comprehensive than others and how that difference dictates their effectiveness for stopping internal theft in its tracks.
Outsourced Background Checks Can Be a Smart Investment
Employee screening is something that tends to happen on a sliding scale of seriousness. At its most basic level, your HR team may diligently check the references of employment candidates, however these can easily be faked. When dialing the number on an applicant’s resume, there’s no way of knowing that you’ll find their true past employer on the other end of the line.
The next step that a company might take is requesting a criminal record check on would-be trainees. This is an excellent idea as it can reveal if a questionable past lies between the letters of their application. However, this still means only piecing together small segments of that individuals character and track record. To really grant a clean bill of health to any applicant status, the best option is to turn to a corporate investigator who is equipped to efficiently present a complete composition—the full sense of who this person is and whether they will fit on your team, or pose a worrying threat.
So what might a background check from Lauth Investigations International tell you? Well, our investigators are licensed to access the same verified databases used by law enforcement. This allows up to compile an intelligence report on your candidate, presenting a full and contextual history of the subject as it relates to their potential role in your enterprise. Pertinent paths of exploration might include confirming the validity of their employment record and credentials; uncovering criminal, financial, and litigative history; and joining the dots between the various pieces to ensure that each element adds up.
Stopping Internal Theft Before It Starts
As each new employee is welcomed into your team, with them comes a distinct vulnerability to a diversity of theft types. Undoubtedly, stopping internal theft doesn’t only mean preventing inventory or office supplies from drifting away. It also means safeguarding against financial theft, embezzlement, fraud, data theft, intellectual property theft, and more. To put the scale of this threat in context, we can turn to research from the U.S. Department of Commerce, which tells us that American businesses lose roughly $50 billion each year as a result of employee theft—and that this number is rising by 15% annually.
Avoiding becoming a part of these alarming statistic begins foundationally with background checks. It is always better to prevent the kinds of disastrous disappearances that can undermine your operation than it is to launch into post-crisis damage control. And by developing a dependable collaborative relationship with a corporate investigations firm—one that understands your business and is always ready to provide dynamic support—you can dramatically reduce the risk of internal theft on an ongoing basis and act quickly if the unexpected occurs.
Without a doubt, comprehensive background checks are a powerful tool for stopping internal theft before it gets the chance to start. Health-checking your company’s culture with a Corporate Culture Audit is also a highly effective way to reveal risk before it evolves into criminal behavior in the work place. To discuss these services and more with a member of our team, reach out for a no-obligation consultation today—because we know that every unique business calls for unique solutions, so let us help guide you towards yours.