We all know, at the very least, starting a business involves many different challenges. Not just from the perspective of marketing, client relationships, and the product itself, but your employees pose significant challenges to your business setup. One of the most difficult circumstances that can potentially arise is if an employee is being devious or underhanded in one way or another. Fraudulent activity, unfortunately, can take on many different forms – from malware and spyware, but also, data can be infiltrated from within. So, what do you do when you suspect an employee of fraudulent activity?
Examine The Situation Properly
It’s vital that you go through the concerns in a proper manner. It might have been brought to your attention that someone is stealing. If this is the case, you need to gather enough evidence to support the claim. You should pay attention to signs, but be careful not accuse anyone prematurely. For example, if there is a loss in profits, the accused doesn’t take vacations and is the first person in the office in the morning and last to leave in the evening. Before you go pointing the finger, it’s important that you spend time observing the accused staff member.
Conduct A Comprehensive Investigation
There are various procedures to follow – not just in terms of HR – but also within the confines of the law. In conducting a thorough and exhaustive investigation, it’s best to evaluate the accused member of staff for some time before jumping to any conclusions. You can do this by making the most of the security systems in the organization. There are also computer forensics services that can help you get a digital fingerprint, which might be evidence enough to discuss with that member of staff. Once you have enough evidence amassed, make sure you go through the correct channels.
Dealing With The Culprit
As soon as you’ve got enough evidence to support your claims, this is when it’s time to bring the person in. It’s natural that they will deny any accusations, which is when you can show the evidence to support every accusation. At this point, you’ll need to change everything about your internal systems. The employee may have already siphoned off data and passed it on to third parties, in which case, this is an instant dismissal. You could also bring about pressing charges, but this is all dependent on your own company infrastructure.
It’s never a comfortable situation when you discover an employee has been conducting fraudulent activity, but it’s important for you to communicate the message to the rest of your employees that you are not to be trifled with. While this type of thing happens more often than you think, it forces you to reconsider how strong your data prevention methods and overall security are.
