Running a business is a difficult task at the best of times. As an employers you need to ensure that your business is running effectively and that losses are minimized. Sometimes, despite your best efforts to screen employees, fraud occurs in the workplace. If you run a business in the UK and you suspect that someone is stealing from you but cannot find definitive proof consider hiring a corporate investigations UK service.
Corporate investigators are engaged for any of the following reasons:
• Faking Sickness – Some estimates show that over 20% of employee’s absence due to illness was fraudulently claimed. If you are suspicious about an employees reason for being absent from work, a covert investigation conducted by corporate investigators of the employee’s activities while on sick leave can provide the proof you need to take action against them.
• Fraud – While most employees are trustworthy and honest some will take advantage of their position to defraud you financially. Often this occurs by employees in a position of trust and a thorough investigation needs to take place to conduct the wrongdoing. Corporate investigators can also help you to put systems in place that will minimise the potential for fraud.
• Time Theft – You pay your employees for the time that they work. If they are not working the hours they agreed then they are effectively stealing from you. Investigators can check whether, for example, employees are arriving and leaving work on time, they are taking long lunch breaks, they are performing non-work related tasks (such as running an outside business) or intentionally slowing their pace of work so that they can claim overtime among others. Losses from this type of theft can quickly mount up and can amount to thousands of pounds a year. Corporate investigators can mount a non-intrusive assessment of whether this is occurring in your workplace.
• Corporate Espionage and Customer Theft – Whether it is done for malicious reasons or for personal gain, stealing business information and customer details can cost your business significantly – not only in monetary terms but also in opening yourself to the possibility of being legally liable for any damage that results from private data being revealed. Corporate investigators can perform thorough background checks on your employees as well as monitoring whether theft is occurring.
There are many potential reasons to employ a professional corporate investigations UK service. Sometimes just performing an audit of your business to ensure that fraud is not occurring can give you peace of mind that your business is operating effectively.