Employment Testing Blog

The $190,000 Background Search

  

  

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$190,000 is a lot of dough.   According the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, that amount is the median loss by small businesses that are victims of embezzlement or employee theft, as recently reported in The Wall Street Journal. 

And more than half of the Certified Fraud Examiners recently surveyed said that occupational fraud has inceased in the past twelve months. 

Is there a foolproof, ironclad way to prevent such losses from occuring?  Probably not, if your business is of any significant size.   But there are some steps to take during the interviewing process to identify applicants that have a pattern of problems or are potential risks.

Most important is a background search.  But not the quick, $9.95 search that's plastered all over the internet.  What you need is an in-depth search to include all counties where the applicant has lived and all aliases that they might have used.

The cheap-o background searches only look at national databases and these can have older information that hasn't been updated.  Or some county criminal databases don't report to the national ones (or are slow to report criminal activity).  But the county level criminal databases are much more accurate.  Search where the applicant currently lives and then also any other counties they recently lived in.  

If the job description requires handling of money or access to sensitive financial information, then an employment credit search should be required.

Is this a guaranteed way to prevent fraud?  Certainly not, as your firm will also need checks and balances internally to head off such activities.  But these in-depth background searches will help you weed out the potential bad eggs before they get a foot in your door (and your company's wallet).