The Need For Continuous Employee Screening “Last week, nine Sprint employees were charged with misusing their access to the telecommunications giant’s systems to redirect phone charges to other customers by “cloning” their cell phones — to the tune of more than $15 million in fraudulent charges in the first six months of this year. ” The above case has a very important message for companies in this country. We are the world’s leading BPO provider and it is essential that incidents like these do not become commonplace. The continuing success of the industry and of the country depends on the good reputation that has been built up. Today technology is all pervading. Information Technology governs and drives most aspects of business.
While it has made industry more competitive and efficient, it has also made it that much easer for online insider employee fraud and abuse. Data theft and other fraud activities by employees are on the rise. Companies, and by inference HR departments, have to keep a closer watch on the activities of their staff. What is just as important is the need to have strict and strong security systems in place. The security has to be, both, the human and technological varieties.
Some standard practices like separating duties, regular rotation of responsibilities must be implemented. Regular and continuous employee screening should become customary. Most companies assume that once they have conducted pre-employment screening, staff will remain pure and uncorrupted. This sort of thinking can be very dangerous and prove harmful. A whole host of reasons can change the situation of an employee and employers have to keep a sharp look out for danger signs. A sudden change in lifestyle where the person seems to be living beyond their earnings or financial crisis can be indicators to possible inducements to carry out fraud activities.
If companies discover fraud being perpetrated by their employees, they need to take actions to ensure that there is no repetition. Merely punishing or dismissing the erring employees is not enough. Companies need to constantly improve and upgrade their security and control work processes or else they could suffer loss of customer confidence and trust. Information security and employee screening should be strategy to a company not knee-jerk, part-time activities.
