Reduce Workplace Fraud
Workplace Fraud is a big problem in today's society. It occurs when money, information, and/or other items are stolen from a company, by an employee. Here is a fraud prevention checklist for the workplace!
- Employee Training.
Use on-going training to reinforce your anti-fraud policies, and to teach employees to speak up when they see something that isn't right. Train them to recognize common behaviours exhibited by inside fraudsters, including employees who appear to be living beyond their means, putting in unnecessarily long hours, medical concerns, signs of gambling or drug addictions, and unusually close relationships with vendors or customers.
- Start A Tips Line.
Being tipped off to strange behaviours is consistently the best way to detect fraud. Organizations that use a tip hotline are much more likely to catch fraudsters, as people feel safer reporting what they see. A hotline can potentially reduce the median loss from fraud by 40.5% and reduce the duration of fraud by half!
- Surprise Audits.
Scheduled audits are critical in business but, according to recent studies, surprise audits are the most effective means of fraud prevention! Research has shown that surprise audits can reduce the median loss from fraud by 43.4% and the median duration of fraud by up to 50%. Those employees committing fraud will cover up their offences if they are aware of an impending audit.
- Data Monitoring.
Monitoring data will keep track of content, and any changes to company files. This is an often overlooked, but effective means of anti-fraud control, and can reduce losses to fraud by almost 60%. At the same time, no one employee should ever be solely responsible for any one function.
- Document Management.
An extensive Document Management Policy will help to keep confidential information secure and organized, and compliant from creation to destruction. Documents are identified, labelled, and securely stored until they are no longer needed.
- Information Destruction.
To prevent any information from being compromised, partner with a reliable document destruction partner that has a secure chain-of-custody for both paper and e-media. The best document destruction practices should include locked containers, on or off site secure destruction using cross cut shredding technology, and a certificate of destruction following every shredding.
Over 40% of data breaches come from within a company, due simply to human error. Use these tips to ensure that this doesn't happen to your company.