Trust is a vital commodity when building your team, and if you’ve gone through a lengthy hiring process, either to get remote workers that truly align with your vision of the business, or you are in one place and you’ve got a solid team that you know can deliver results, finding out that an employee has committed fraud is a major kick in the teeth. When an employee commits fraud, the first thing we can feel is stupid, and forever kick ourselves. But when we uncover employee fraud, we need to stick to a strict process. So what do we do when we’ve caught a whiff of an employee committing fraudulent acts?
Gathering The Evidence
This could be the longest part of the process. It’s important to know that you are on the right side of the law. There are numerous business legal resources at your disposal, make sure that you use them. It’s important to conduct a thorough investigation when gathering evidence because you need to make sure that you have enough information, either by catching the person in the act or using the information to bolster your case against the person if they deny it. There are various processes that can help you. It’s not just about security cameras, but there is digital fingerprinting software that can help. But when gathering your information, consider observing the person for a long time, just so you know you are in the right, legally speaking. You must also remember that the investigation has to be discreet, for the benefit of morale within the business.
Dealing With The Employee
Once you’re satisfied that you’ve gathered enough evidence this is when you can either terminate their contract immediately, but if there is a potential for more fraudulent activities despite the perpetrator leaving the company, it might be important to get more information out of them before letting them go. Also, based on their service record, you may want to give them the option to resign quietly. But when it’s common knowledge that an employee has committed a fraudulent act, you’ve got to remember to set an example. This may very well mean terminating the person’s contract.
Learning From The Experience
Trust is a vital commodity, but when someone has committed a fraudulent act, we can learn from our mistakes. Perhaps we were too trusting in people or we didn’t do enough during the hiring process. Whatever it is, it’s important that we learn from our mistakes. We have to remember that trust is crucial, but we can’t walk around with our defences up either. When an employee commits fraud, it’s important to find out why they did it in the first place. Sometimes they are that sort of person, or it can come from a desperate place. And this can help fuel our knowledge going forward. It’s hurtful when someone we’ve trusted has knowingly abused this. But as we develop our business, improve our security, we must also remember the importance of finding the right people. If an employee commits fraud, we have to remember that justice will be served, and it shouldn’t be taken personally, even though it feels very personal.
This is a collaborative post.
