We live in a changing world.  Employees are working across international borders. The barriers to global competition are dropping, and technology is simplifying communications and enabling virtually anyone to join the global job market. 

In 2018 CNBC wrote: "HR Confidential: I hired him without conducting a background check". His first act was to steal the identities of his co-workers. Let's look at the case study.

At a foreign banking company, I was a senior HR manager. I was informed by a colleague that someone had stolen his identity and applied for credit cards in his name. I took a report down, but I didn't think anything of it since I handled payroll and other sensitive information. Employment history verification were not unusual in contacting me about changes to their banking information or if their bank accounts were compromised. Through that, I could make sure there were no issues with their deposits. I raised my red flag when another employment verification check came to me with the same issue a week later. It was by the third employee that I became concerned. Due to the coincidence of three employees having identity theft in three weeks, I realized we had an internal problem. We tried to figure out what was happening, but we couldn't.

 

About 96% of employment check conduct at least one background check before hiring someone.

 

 

 

 How To Solve It

We contracted a fraud investigation company after a few weeks. People who handled our personnel files were asked for their names, photos, and addresses by authorities who came to my office. About 15 to 20 individuals were listed for them. The postal police and the postmaster general returned a week later. They sat me down, laid the list in front of me, and asked, "Who is this person?" I replied, "Oh, he's a temp in our file room." We were told, "Bring him in." I brought him to my office, and he was handcuffed within five minutes. I couldn't believe what I heard.

 

I was taken aback. We had hired him as a temp employee Background verification from an outside agency to work in our file room. When you have 3,000 employees, personal files soon pile up, so we hired him to clean up each person's file, update it with new information, and file it away. He was, however, breaking into these files and collecting people's social security numbers as well as their personal information. The person was already being investigated by the post office for credit card fraud tied to a certain address. As a result, they were able to quickly identify him when they saw his name on our list. When he first came into my office, he denied being the perpetrator.

 

He eventually revealed, however, that his friend persuaded him to steal his coworkers' information. He and a friend made the mistake of fraudulently signing up for credit cards and having them issued to their home addresses. That was the address on our list that the postmaster noticed. This was a nightmare for the employees who had their identities stolen. It took some of them over a year to figure it out. I also felt a sense of responsibility because I hired the temp and this happened while I was in charge. I did my best to help in every way I could.

Our company felt obligated to offer assistance, so we paid the fees for helping them clean up their records. This made me feel awful. Their situation lasted a long time. We weren't sued or anything, but it was a mess.

     Learned This Lesson

 

The first lesson is to know when something is out of your comfort zone and when you need to seek help. It was not my staff's expertise to investigate employee theft. Our investigation company cost about $5,000, but it saved us time that we would not have been able to save otherwise. You need to know when you've reached your limit and when to outsource.

SunBangla Group's EmployeSmart pre-employment background screening process analyzes a job candidate's credentials and claims in order to determine whether they are accurate. As part of our extensive screening process, our experts analyze the following details about a potential hire:

Employment references

Checks for bankruptcy and credit

Academia and Professional Qualifications

Success in Business and Prior Work Experience

Checks of sanction lists and criminal records

Is it possible to ignore degrees and credentials? Contact us right away.

 Learn as Much as You Can!

Choosing the right candidate for the job isn't always easy, but conducting a background check shouldn't be a complicated process. It's easy to make better hiring decisions in the long run if you do it right Read More……