Business security is a big deal to pretty much every business out there in the world. The worry that some hacker will rock up to your online space and drain your resources while subsequently hacking your data is terrifying. Most business owners pour everything that they have into their business, which means that anyone taking those pieces of business away are not just hurting the company, they’re hurting the people that work there and the owner that started it all in the first place. A particularly difficult challenge in business is dealing with fraud, but it’s even worse when that fraud is committed by a member of the staff that you train and pay every month.
When you suspect a breach in the company, you immediately begin working with your IT teams and computer forensics services to ascertain where the breach has come from. You don’t ever imagine that the breach in security will come from inside company walls. At some point, most businesses will experience theft, fraud or embezzlement from an employee. It’s not a nice thing to deal with, it’s emotionally draining, and it can have a huge impact on everyone who works for a company – depending on the size of the business, of course. The hard part is handling the situation without putting the entire workforce of the company on a downer. With the tips below, you can handle a sensitive and sad situation with grace and poise.
Staying prepared with your security is possibly the best thing that you can do initially. There will always be times that you can’t prevent fraud in the workplace, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do everything to minimise it. Using online security, changing the passwords and limiting who has passwords to sensitive information and avoiding having any finances as an easy target is important.
Investigate any concerns that you may have. Even small things, like certain employees in charge of the petty cash and other business areas like it who never take a vacation can be a cause of concern. Determine whether you want to have a forensic accountant on speed dial or not, because it’s extremely tough to investigate a suspicion of fraud without damaging anyone’s reputation.
Talking to the member of staff in question is the next big – and scary – step. A conversation about what you’ve discovered can be a calm one, and where possible try to have the meeting at the end of the day so that you don’t draw too much attention to the situation to the other members of staff. Move forward with a termination of employment if you’re sure that fraud has happened and consult your legal team about what to do next.
Be open with the remaining staff about what has happened. Explain your procedures and policies again and tighten them up where you can to deter further fraud in the office.
Workplace fraud isn’t comfortable and can damage your business, so make a point of managing your staff the best that you can to avoid it at all costs.