In his first article Dave Kearns of Expert Investigations highlighted the fact that the majority of organisations and companies are reluctant to believe that they may have dishonest employees within: the ‘Insider Threat’.
Moving on a step: once the acceptance has been realised, what do you about it next? Why wait until there is dishonesty and a financial or PR loss before you try and deal with it. It can be more difficult to detect the dishonesty and to recover your losses that to prevent or disrupt it occurring in the first place. It’s time to act. Act now to prevent and disrupt. In our own private personal life, we chose the option to prevent and disrupt. WE lock our house and car. We have alarms on them. We may have CCTV. We carry our handbags and shoulder bags with straps, clasps and buckles on the inside and we don’t let people see our PIN at the cashpoint. In other words we see the vulnerability and we prevent a criminal taking advantage. We reduce the opportunity.
Companies and organisations will do the same for their business premises and for the duty of care for their staff. CCTV, alarms, access control, security guards, barriers, bells, bolts and whistles. They will target harden their product from a common thief, con artist or burglar. Companies and organisations need to apply the same house keeping rules when assessing the risk of the ‘Insider Threat’. The dishonest employee. My advice is a simple three tier approach.
Tier one
Drive this agenda from the top. Give this responsibility at a senior level and identify an individual(s) who are best to take responsibility for this. When you identify a theft or fraud there is usually, especially within the SME sector no person with responsibility, so that responsibility suddenly is handed to an individual (s) to manage the issue. Usually this falls on HR. This could fall easily onto the FD’s or Ops Manager’s desk. I give in-house presentations which allow the delegates to understand how employees will be dishonest, why they will be dishonest and how to prevent, detect and disrupt the employees. There needs to be a clear understand for the delegates to understand the role of Police in this environment and the sanctions available by criminal, civil or disciplinary routes. Dishonesty takes place at a senior level, often with greater financial costs. This seminar is the first introduction to senior individuals that you are addressing dishonesty. You will have already commenced a prevention and disruption information stream at this very early stage with a seminar.
Tier two
Understand your vulnerability. Conduct a gap analysis. This will allow you to identify any weaknesses in physical security, systems, IT, processes, procedures and policies. It is at this stage that you are showing to the general workplace, your commitment to the subject and this process will increase the process of prevention and disruption. A gap analysis allows you to understand where your weaknesses lie and how to put simple measures in place to prevent the opportunity for employees to steal. Negating the opportunity at source will also prevent the employee even considering how to rationalise their actions and also cease them from considering the financial motivation to be dishonest……eradicate as much opportunity as possible.
Tier three
In house training or external suppliers to assist you in gathering evidence and interviewing. Managers need support to conduct investigations lawfully. How to gather evidence, preserve evidence and present evidence. Maintaining the continuity of evidence through any investigation process is vital. Employees need to understand there is a positive proactive capability in the organisation, which includes a structured approach to gathering the evidence and this includes statement taking and interviewing. This also becomes a powerful perception, as there is a visible ‘bark to the bite’. The perception of an employee is generally that the likelihood of being caught is low and the consequences minimal, then the opportunity for dishonesty increase, whereas if the perception of being caught is high and the consequences severe then the opportunity is less. Using the three tier approach will prevent and disrupt the dishonesty by highlighting to employees the risk is too high a price to pay for them to pay.
About the writer
David Kearns, after 13 and a half years in the police, where he specialised in field intelligence, set up Expert Investigations Group 18 years ago. He’s among speakers at a Midlands Fraud Forum morning seminar on ‘Open Source Intelligence and Investigative routes’ in Birmingham on May 2. Visit expert-investigations.co.uk.
