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Are Your Employees Making the Wrong Kind of Headlines?

Employee theft and employee scams are the concern of any business.  Not only does you business suffer losses at the hands of corrupt employees, but your entire work staff can risk a serious drop in morale.  Quite often other, law abiding employees, know who the culprits are.   They grow increasingly restive when the employer doesn’t take action against thieves and scam artists within the company.

In a recent case, a total of 14 Hewitt employees were charged with forgery and theft for scamming tuition reimbursements.   These charges are felonies, which let’s just say on anyone’s record eliminates a great deal of career advancement.   According to the article in the Chicago Daily Herald, the suspects either never applied for education courses and claimed they did’ enrolled for classes but never finished them; or changed grades to assure reimbursement.   The company reimburses its employees up to $5,000 to further their education.  All in all, the fourteen suspects bilked the company out of more than $100,000.

Okay, in this case it was Hewitt employees making headlines.   Hewitt had extended to them an opportunity, and these fourteen took advantage for the situation.   Way to go.   But suppose it was your company in the headlines?   It could be news making material for this or any one of a number of thefts, frauds, scams, embezzlements or  violence in the work place issues that play oh so well over the six o’clock news.

This is why it is so important to run background checks on your job candidates.  While a preemployment screening program is no guarantee you will prevent such criminal activity, it goes a long way in helping to eliminate the risk.   For the experienced background researcher, it is not only the literal reports that they take note of, but the behavior patterns that can be constructed by careful review of these reports.   You can see signs of financial difficulty that could lead to theft, domestic issues, substance issues and psychological difficulties.

So check them out before you hire.  It makes sense.  So that way when your workers make headlines it is for the better things you wish to represent to the public at large.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.